VacationSelector
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Malaga or Newport 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 Malaga for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • families
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport 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. Malaga 77, Newport Beach 70: Malaga leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Malaga 68, Newport Beach 50: Malaga leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Malaga 65, Newport Beach 20: Malaga leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Malaga 62, Newport Beach 33: Malaga leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Malaga 73, Newport Beach 66: Malaga leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Malaga 87, Newport Beach 70: Malaga leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Malaga 70, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Malaga 70, Newport Beach 20: Malaga leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Malaga 55, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Malaga 55, Newport Beach 15: Malaga leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Malaga 45, Newport Beach 46: Newport Beach leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Malaga 42, Newport Beach 44: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Malaga and Newport Beach.

Your match

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

Malaga
Best match
64match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on families 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.

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Newport 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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MalagaNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMalagaNewport Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation18 m3 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMalagaNewport Beach
City population599,06385,239
People per km²1,517622
Museums within 10 km324
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Malaga or Newport 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.