VacationSelector
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day
Palms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach
West Palm BeachPalms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue

Photos: Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Huntington Beach or West Palm 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 Huntington Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose West Palm Beach for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm 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. Huntington Beach 70, West Palm Beach 80: West Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Huntington Beach 46, West Palm Beach 52: West Palm Beach leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Huntington Beach 14, West Palm Beach 42: West Palm Beach leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Huntington Beach 38, West Palm Beach 36: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huntington Beach and West Palm Beach are level on 58.
Day trips. Huntington Beach 63, West Palm Beach 55: Huntington Beach leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Huntington Beach 82, West Palm Beach 66: Huntington Beach leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Huntington Beach 20, West Palm Beach 38: West Palm Beach leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Huntington Beach 42, West Palm Beach 64: West Palm Beach leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Huntington Beach 28, West Palm Beach 23: Huntington Beach leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huntington Beach 33, West Palm Beach 47: West Palm Beach leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huntington Beach 36, West Palm Beach 44: West Palm Beach leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huntington Beach and West Palm Beach.

Your match

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

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

West Palm Beach
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

West Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Huntington BeachWest Palm Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuntington BeachWest Palm Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation12 m6 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuntington BeachWest Palm Beach
City population198,711117,415
People per km²2,406786
Museums within 10 km34
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Huntington Beach or West Palm 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.