VacationSelector
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Monaco 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 Monaco for

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

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • families
  • prices
  • shopping

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. Monaco 68, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Monaco 57, Newport Beach 50: Monaco leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Monaco 55, Newport Beach 20: Monaco leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Monaco 48, Newport Beach 33: Monaco leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Monaco 70, Newport Beach 66: Monaco leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Monaco 84, Newport Beach 70: Monaco leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Monaco 60, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Monaco 78, Newport Beach 20: Monaco leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Monaco 52, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Monaco 3, Newport Beach 15: Newport Beach leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Monaco 63, Newport Beach 46: Monaco leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Monaco 55, Newport Beach 44: Monaco leads by 11 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Monaco
Best match
58match

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

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on families and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Monaco in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MonacoNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMonacoNewport Beach
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCEF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation68 m3 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 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

MeasureMonacoNewport Beach
City population38,85785,239
People per km²18,503622
Museums within 10 km144
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Monaco or Newport Beach somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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). 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. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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.