VacationSelector
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Huntington Beach or Madrid?

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 Huntington Beach for

  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Madrid for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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. Huntington Beach 70, Madrid 5: Huntington Beach leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Huntington Beach 46, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Huntington Beach 14, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 72 points.
Nightlife. Huntington Beach 38, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huntington Beach 58, Madrid 60: Madrid leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Huntington Beach 63, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Huntington Beach 82, Madrid 68: Huntington Beach leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Huntington Beach 20, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 64 points.
Shopping & style. Huntington Beach 42, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Huntington Beach 28, Madrid 50: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huntington Beach 33, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huntington Beach and Madrid are level on 36.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huntington Beach and Madrid.

Your match

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

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Huntington 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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
Huntington BeachMadrid

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuntington BeachMadrid
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation12 m663 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuntington BeachMadrid
City population198,7113,506,730
People per km²2,4065,801
Museums within 10 km388
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Huntington Beach or Madrid 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under 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.