VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Havana 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 Havana for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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. Havana 64, San Francisco 25: Havana leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, San Francisco 68: Havana leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, San Francisco 58: Havana leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, San Francisco 14: Havana leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Havana
47match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and food and drink 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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaSan Francisco

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

Before you go

MeasureHavanaSan Francisco
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 m16 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaSan Francisco
City population2,492,618873,965
People per km²3,4231,455
Museums within 10 km1251
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 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.