VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Baku or San Francisco?

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 Baku for

  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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. Baku 40, San Francisco 25: Baku leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, San Francisco 14: Baku leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku 30, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Baku
48match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BakuSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuSan Francisco
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign Language-
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number102 or 112911
Elevation-28 m16 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuSan Francisco
City population2,300,500873,965
People per km²1,0751,455
Museums within 10 km5051
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku or San Francisco 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.