VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Hiroshima 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 Hiroshima for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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. Hiroshima 30, San Francisco 25: Hiroshima leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, San Francisco 72: Hiroshima leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, San Francisco 70: Hiroshima leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, San Francisco 14: Hiroshima leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 50, San Francisco 42: Hiroshima leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hiroshima and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Hiroshima
56match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

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 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°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaSan Francisco
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 m16 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaSan Francisco
City population1,198,021873,965
People per km²1,3241,455
Museums within 10 km1851
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hiroshima or San Francisco 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.