VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Galway or San Diego?

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
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose San Diego for

  • families
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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, San Diego 72: San Diego leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, San Diego 62: San Diego leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, San Diego 50: San Diego leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, San Diego 48: Galway leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, San Diego 77: Galway leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, San Diego 60: San Diego leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 54 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, San Diego 38: Galway leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, San Diego 44: San Diego leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, San Diego 26: Galway leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, San Diego 56: Galway leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, San Diego 45: San Diego leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and San Diego.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

San Diego
Best match
56match

Wins on families and beaches 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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwaySan Diego

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). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwaySan Diego
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 m129 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwaySan Diego
City population83,4561,386,932
People per km²1,5631,438
Museums within 10 km426
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway or San Diego 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.