VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License.

Austin or Laguna Beach?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Austin for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Austin’s own page.

Choose Laguna Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Laguna Beach’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Austin 30, Laguna Beach 72: Laguna Beach leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Laguna Beach 40: Austin leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Austin 40, Laguna Beach 27: Austin leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Laguna Beach 18: Austin leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Laguna Beach 73: Laguna Beach leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, Laguna Beach 72: Laguna Beach leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, Laguna Beach 68: Laguna Beach leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Laguna Beach 33: Laguna Beach leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Laguna Beach 46: Laguna Beach leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Laguna Beach 12: Austin leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Laguna Beach 40: Austin leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin 40, Laguna Beach 47: Laguna Beach leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Austin and Laguna Beach.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Austin
Best match
50match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AustinLaguna Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre). Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAustinLaguna Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation149 m6 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinLaguna Beach
City population961,85523,032
People per km²1,217907
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Austin or Laguna Beach somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.