VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Galway or San Francisco?

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

  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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 Francisco 25: Galway leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, San Francisco 14: Galway leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights 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 Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwaySan Francisco

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 Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwaySan Francisco
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 m16 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwaySan Francisco
City population83,456873,965
People per km²1,5631,455
Museums within 10 km451
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 San Francisco 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.