VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

New York 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 New York for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. New York 50, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, Newport Beach 50: New York leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, Newport Beach 20: New York leads by 69 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, Newport Beach 33: New York leads by 64 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 11 points.
Day trips. New York 68, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
Good for families. New York 70, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. New York 82, Newport Beach 20: New York leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, Newport Beach 62: New York leads by 35 points.
Affordability. New York 12, Newport Beach 15: Newport Beach leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, Newport Beach 46: New York leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 42, Newport Beach 44: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
15 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
New YorkNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkNewport 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
Elevation25 m3 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkNewport Beach
City population8,804,19085,239
People per km²7,256622
Museums within 10 km1574
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 New York 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.