VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License.

Havana or Laguna 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 Havana for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Laguna Beach for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Laguna 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. Havana 64, Laguna Beach 72: Laguna Beach leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Havana and Laguna Beach are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Laguna Beach 27: Havana leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Laguna Beach 18: Havana leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Laguna Beach 73: Laguna Beach leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Laguna Beach 72: Laguna Beach leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Laguna Beach 68: Laguna Beach leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Laguna Beach 33: Havana leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Laguna Beach 46: Laguna Beach leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Laguna Beach 12: Havana leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Laguna Beach 40: Havana leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Laguna Beach 47: Laguna Beach leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Laguna 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

Havana
47match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaLaguna Beach

Where the figures come from

Havana 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. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaLaguna Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105911
Elevation59 m6 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaLaguna Beach
City population2,492,61823,032
People per km²3,423907
Museums within 10 km122
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Havana or Laguna 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). 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). 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. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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.