VacationSelector
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Monaco 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 Monaco for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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. Monaco 68, San Francisco 25: Monaco leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Monaco 57, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Monaco 55, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Monaco 48, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Monaco 70, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Monaco 84, San Francisco 72: Monaco leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Monaco 60, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Monaco 78, San Francisco 70: Monaco leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Monaco 52, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Monaco 3, San Francisco 14: San Francisco leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Monaco 63, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Monaco 55, San Francisco 42: Monaco leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Monaco and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Monaco
58match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

San Francisco
59match

Wins on food and drink 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.

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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MonacoSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMonacoSan Francisco
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 m16 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMonacoSan Francisco
City population38,857873,965
People per km²18,5031,455
Museums within 10 km1451
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 San Francisco 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.