VacationSelector
A lifeguard stand on South Beach, Miami
MiamiA lifeguard stand on South Beach
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

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

Miami 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 for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • 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 90, Newport Beach 70: Miami leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Miami 72, Newport Beach 50: Miami leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Miami 57, Newport Beach 20: Miami leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Miami 82, Newport Beach 33: Miami leads by 49 points.
Nature & outdoors. Miami 64, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Miami 42, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Miami 64, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Miami 35, Newport Beach 20: Miami leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Miami 71, Newport Beach 62: Miami leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Miami 27, Newport Beach 15: Miami leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Miami 55, Newport Beach 46: Miami leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Miami and Newport Beach are level on 44.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Miami and Newport Beach.

Your match

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

Miami
Best match
59match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Miami 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
MiamiNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMiamiNewport 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
Elevation2 m3 m
Main airportMiami International Airport (MIA)7 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

MeasureMiamiNewport Beach
City population442,24185,239
People per km²3,046622
Museums within 10 km174
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 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.