VacationSelector
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill

Photos: Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License; Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License.

Laguna Beach or Philadelphia?

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

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Philadelphia for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Philadelphia’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, Philadelphia 36: Laguna Beach leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Laguna Beach 40, Philadelphia 62: Philadelphia leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Laguna Beach 27, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Laguna Beach 18, Philadelphia 55: Philadelphia leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Laguna Beach 73, Philadelphia 52: Laguna Beach leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Laguna Beach 72, Philadelphia 80: Philadelphia leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Laguna Beach and Philadelphia are level on 68.
Getting around. Laguna Beach 33, Philadelphia 66: Philadelphia leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Laguna Beach 46, Philadelphia 57: Philadelphia leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Laguna Beach 12, Philadelphia 40: Philadelphia leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Laguna Beach 40, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Laguna Beach 47, Philadelphia 26: Laguna Beach leads by 21 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Laguna Beach and Philadelphia.

Your match

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

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Philadelphia
Best match
57match

Wins on culture and sights 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
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Laguna BeachPhiladelphia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre). Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLaguna BeachPhiladelphia
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 m12 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLaguna BeachPhiladelphia
City population23,0321,603,797
People per km²9074,339
Museums within 10 km254
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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