VacationSelector
The wide beach and its hotels in morning light, Daytona Beach
Daytona BeachThe wide beach and its hotels in morning light
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day

Photos: Daytona Beach by Han Zheng, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License.

Daytona Beach or Huntington 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 Daytona Beach for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

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

Choose Huntington Beach for

  • families
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Huntington 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. Daytona Beach 80, Huntington Beach 70: Daytona Beach leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Daytona Beach 36, Huntington Beach 46: Huntington Beach leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Daytona Beach 30, Huntington Beach 14: Daytona Beach leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Daytona Beach 40, Huntington Beach 38: Daytona Beach leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Daytona Beach 56, Huntington Beach 58: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Daytona Beach 66, Huntington Beach 63: Daytona Beach leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Daytona Beach 60, Huntington Beach 82: Huntington Beach leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Daytona Beach 18, Huntington Beach 20: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Daytona Beach 27, Huntington Beach 42: Huntington Beach leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Daytona Beach 46, Huntington Beach 28: Daytona Beach leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Daytona Beach 30, Huntington Beach 33: Huntington Beach leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Daytona Beach 30, Huntington Beach 36: Huntington Beach leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Daytona Beach and Huntington Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Daytona Beach
43match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on families 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.

Daytona Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Daytona BeachHuntington Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Daytona Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Daytona Beach / Mansfield Mobile Home Park (4.9 km from centre). Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDaytona BeachHuntington Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m12 m
Main airportDaytona Beach International Airport (DAB)5 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDaytona BeachHuntington Beach
City population72,647198,711
People per km²4402,406
Museums within 10 km63
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 Daytona Beach or Huntington 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.