VacationSelector
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day

Photos: Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License.

Destin 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 Destin for

  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Huntington Beach for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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. Destin 86, Huntington Beach 70: Destin leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Destin 42, Huntington Beach 46: Huntington Beach leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Destin and Huntington Beach are level on 14.
Nightlife. Destin 36, Huntington Beach 38: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Destin 56, Huntington Beach 58: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Destin 44, Huntington Beach 63: Huntington Beach leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Destin 72, Huntington Beach 82: Huntington Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Destin and Huntington Beach are level on 20.
Shopping & style. Destin 40, Huntington Beach 42: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Destin 34, Huntington Beach 28: Destin leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Destin 20, Huntington Beach 33: Huntington Beach leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Destin 33, Huntington Beach 36: Huntington Beach leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Destin and Huntington Beach.

Your match

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

Destin
41match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Huntington Beach
Best match
44match

Wins on day trips 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.

Destin in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
29 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DestinHuntington Beach

Where the figures come from

Destin has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Destin: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Destin (0.8 km from centre). Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDestinHuntington Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m12 m
Main airportDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 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

MeasureDestinHuntington Beach
City population13,931198,711
People per km²6362,406
Museums within 10 km13
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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