VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Huntington Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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. Galway 28, Huntington Beach 70: Huntington Beach leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Huntington Beach 46: Huntington Beach leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Huntington Beach 14: Galway leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Huntington Beach 38: Galway leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Huntington Beach 58: Galway leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Huntington Beach 63: Huntington Beach leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Huntington Beach 82: Huntington Beach leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Huntington Beach 20: Galway leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Huntington Beach 42: Huntington Beach leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Galway and Huntington Beach are level on 28.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Huntington Beach 33: Galway leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Huntington Beach 36: Huntington Beach leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway 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

Galway
45match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Huntington 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayHuntington Beach

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayHuntington Beach
Official languageEnglish, Irish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation25 m12 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 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

MeasureGalwayHuntington Beach
City population83,456198,711
People per km²1,5632,406
Museums within 10 km43
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.