VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Hiroshima 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 Hiroshima for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose San Diego for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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. Hiroshima 30, San Diego 72: San Diego leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, San Diego 62: Hiroshima leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, San Diego 50: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, San Diego 48: San Diego leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, San Diego 77: San Diego leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, San Diego 60: Hiroshima leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, San Diego 38: Hiroshima leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, San Diego 44: Hiroshima leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, San Diego 26: Hiroshima leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, San Diego 56: San Diego leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 50, San Diego 45: Hiroshima leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hiroshima and San Diego.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Hiroshima
56match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

San Diego
56match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 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°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaSan Diego

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaSan Diego
Official languageJapanese-
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation3 m129 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaSan Diego
City population1,198,0211,386,932
People per km²1,3241,438
Museums within 10 km1826
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hiroshima or San Diego 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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.