VacationSelector
A purple lifeguard tower on South Beach, Miami Beach
Miami BeachA purple lifeguard tower on South Beach
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Miami Beach by Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Miami Beach 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 Miami Beach for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Miami Beach 92, Newport Beach 70: Miami Beach leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Miami Beach 62, Newport Beach 50: Miami Beach leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Miami Beach 52, Newport Beach 20: Miami Beach leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Miami Beach 80, Newport Beach 33: Miami Beach leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Miami Beach 52, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Miami Beach 55, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Miami Beach 60, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Miami Beach 58, Newport Beach 20: Miami Beach leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Miami Beach 55, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Miami Beach 20, Newport Beach 15: Miami Beach leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Miami Beach 55, Newport Beach 46: Miami Beach leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Miami Beach 48, Newport Beach 44: Miami Beach leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Miami Beach and Newport Beach.

Your match

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

Miami Beach
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Miami Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Miami BeachNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Miami Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (18.8 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMiami BeachNewport Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1 m3 m
Main airportMiami International Airport (MIA)16 km from centre198 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMiami BeachNewport Beach
City population82,89085,239
People per km²2,109622
Museums within 10 km144
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 Miami Beach 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). 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.