VacationSelector
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Huntington Beach or Wilmington?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Huntington Beach 46, Wilmington 48: Wilmington leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Huntington Beach 14, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Huntington Beach 38, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huntington Beach and Wilmington are level on 58.
Day trips. Huntington Beach 63, Wilmington 45: Huntington Beach leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Huntington Beach 82, Wilmington 62: Huntington Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Huntington Beach 20, Wilmington 28: Wilmington leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Huntington Beach 42, Wilmington 33: Huntington Beach leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Huntington Beach 28, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huntington Beach 33, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huntington Beach 36, Wilmington 33: Huntington Beach leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huntington Beach and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Huntington BeachWilmington

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuntington BeachWilmington
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 m9 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuntington BeachWilmington
City population198,711115,451
People per km²2,406839
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Huntington Beach or Wilmington 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.