VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Brisbane by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Brisbane 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 Brisbane for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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. Brisbane 55, San Francisco 25: Brisbane leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, San Francisco 66: Brisbane leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, San Francisco 14: Brisbane leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 40, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brisbane and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Brisbane
54match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink 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

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°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BrisbaneSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrisbaneSan Francisco
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 m16 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneSan Francisco
City population2,706,966873,965
People per km²1711,455
Museums within 10 km1651
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 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.