VacationSelector
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Los Cabos or San Francisco?

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 Los Cabos for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Cabos’s own page.

Choose San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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. Los Cabos 84, San Francisco 25: Los Cabos leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Los Cabos 54, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Los Cabos 20, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Los Cabos 66, San Francisco 58: Los Cabos leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Cabos 78, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Los Cabos 42, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Los Cabos 55, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Los Cabos 28, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Los Cabos 36, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Los Cabos 28, San Francisco 14: Los Cabos leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Cabos 12, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 64 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Cabos 58, San Francisco 42: Los Cabos leads by 16 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Cabos and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Los Cabos
47match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Cabos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
19 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Los CabosSan Francisco

Where the figures come from

Los Cabos has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos CabosSan Francisco
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m16 m
Main airportLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos CabosSan Francisco
City population202,694873,965
People per km²-1,455
Museums within 10 km151
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Cabos or San Francisco somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.