VacationSelector
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower
The SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach

Photos: Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License; Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Laguna Beach or Myrtle 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 Laguna Beach for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Myrtle Beach for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Myrtle 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. Laguna Beach 72, Myrtle Beach 84: Myrtle Beach leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Laguna Beach 40, Myrtle Beach 38: Laguna Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Laguna Beach 27, Myrtle Beach 20: Laguna Beach leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Laguna Beach 18, Myrtle Beach 42: Myrtle Beach leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Laguna Beach 73, Myrtle Beach 46: Laguna Beach leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Laguna Beach 72, Myrtle Beach 50: Laguna Beach leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Laguna Beach 68, Myrtle Beach 80: Myrtle Beach leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Laguna Beach 33, Myrtle Beach 18: Laguna Beach leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Laguna Beach 46, Myrtle Beach 38: Laguna Beach leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Laguna Beach 12, Myrtle Beach 52: Myrtle Beach leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Laguna Beach 40, Myrtle Beach 30: Laguna Beach leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Laguna Beach 47, Myrtle Beach 28: Laguna Beach leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Laguna Beach and Myrtle Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Myrtle Beach
44match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Laguna BeachMyrtle Beach

Where the figures come from

Myrtle Beach has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre). Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLaguna BeachMyrtle 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
Elevation6 m8 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLaguna BeachMyrtle Beach
City population23,03235,682
People per km²907591
Museums within 10 km22
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 Laguna Beach or Myrtle 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.