VacationSelector
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Destin 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 Destin for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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. Destin 86, Newport Beach 70: Destin leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Destin 42, Newport Beach 50: Newport Beach leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Destin 14, Newport Beach 20: Newport Beach leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Destin 36, Newport Beach 33: Destin leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Destin 56, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Destin 44, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Destin 72, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Destin and Newport Beach are level on 20.
Shopping & style. Destin 40, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Destin 34, Newport Beach 15: Destin leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Destin 20, Newport Beach 46: Newport Beach leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Destin 33, Newport Beach 44: Newport Beach leads by 11 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Destin and Newport Beach.

Your match

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

Destin
41match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Newport Beach
Best match
48match

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

Newport 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
DestinNewport 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). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDestinNewport 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 m3 m
Main airportDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 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

MeasureDestinNewport Beach
City population13,93185,239
People per km²636622
Museums within 10 km14
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 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.