VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Bath 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 Bath for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose San Francisco for

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

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. Bath 10, San Francisco 25: San Francisco leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Bath and San Francisco are level on 68.
Nightlife. Bath 30, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, San Francisco 72: Bath leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, San Francisco 70: Bath leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, San Francisco 14: Bath leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, San Francisco 42: Bath leads by 36 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Bath
51match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on food and drink and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BathSan Francisco

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathSan Francisco
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation132 m16 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathSan Francisco
City population94,092873,965
People per km²3,2451,455
Museums within 10 km1751
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath 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). 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. 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.