VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Austin or San Diego?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose San Diego for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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, San Diego 72: San Diego leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, San Diego 62: Austin leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Austin 40, San Diego 50: San Diego leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Austin 65, San Diego 48: Austin leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, San Diego 77: San Diego leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, San Diego 60: San Diego leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, San Diego 38: San Diego leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, San Diego 44: Austin leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, San Diego 26: Austin leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, San Diego 56: Austin leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin 40, San Diego 45: San Diego leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Austin and San Diego.

Your match

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

Austin
50match

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

San Diego
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and families 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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 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
AustinSan Diego

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). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAustinSan Diego
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 m129 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinSan Diego
City population961,8551,386,932
People per km²1,2171,438
Museums within 10 km2126
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Austin or San Diego 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.