VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Ghent 25, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Newport Beach 50: Ghent leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Newport Beach 20: Ghent leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Newport Beach 33: Ghent leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Newport Beach 70: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Newport Beach 20: Ghent leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Newport Beach 15: Ghent leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Newport Beach 46: Ghent leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Newport Beach 44: Newport Beach leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Newport Beach.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Newport 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
GhentNewport Beach

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentNewport Beach
Official languageFrench, German, Dutch-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation12 m3 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentNewport Beach
City population272,65785,239
People per km²1,728622
Museums within 10 km304
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Newport Beach somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.