VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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. Colombo 55, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Newport Beach 50: Colombo leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Newport Beach 20: Colombo leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Newport Beach 33: Colombo leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Newport Beach 20: Colombo leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Newport Beach 15: Colombo leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Newport Beach 46: Newport Beach leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Newport Beach 44: Colombo leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Newport Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Colombo
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboNewport Beach
Official languageTamil, Sinhala-
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m3 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboNewport Beach
City population647,55785,239
People per km²17,361622
Museums within 10 km104
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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