VacationSelector
Titanic Belfast, Belfast
BelfastTitanic Belfast
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Belfast by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Belfast 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 Belfast for

  • prices

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

Choose San Francisco for

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

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. Belfast 20, San Francisco 25: San Francisco leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Belfast 50, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Belfast 55, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Belfast 50, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Belfast 74, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Belfast 66, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Belfast 58, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Belfast 62, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Belfast 45, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Belfast 48, San Francisco 14: Belfast leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Belfast 55, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Belfast 25, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 17 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Belfast
51match

Wins on 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.

Belfast in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
17 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
BelfastSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Belfast: 1991-2020 normals, Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (19.4 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBelfastSan 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
Elevation3 m16 m
Main airportGeorge Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)4 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBelfastSan Francisco
City population345,006873,965
People per km²3,0001,455
Museums within 10 km851
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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