VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Brisbane by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Brisbane or Newport 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 Brisbane for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport 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. Brisbane 55, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, Newport Beach 50: Brisbane leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, Newport Beach 20: Brisbane leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, Newport Beach 33: Brisbane leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, Newport Beach 66: Brisbane leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, Newport Beach 20: Brisbane leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, Newport Beach 15: Brisbane leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, Newport Beach 46: Brisbane leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 40, Newport Beach 44: Newport Beach leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brisbane and Newport Beach.

Your match

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

Brisbane
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Brisbane in July

22 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BrisbaneNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrisbaneNewport Beach
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation0 m3 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneNewport Beach
City population2,706,96685,239
People per km²171622
Museums within 10 km164
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Brisbane or Newport 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.