VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum

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

Newport Beach or Palm 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 Newport Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Palm Beach for

  • culture and sights
  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm 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. Newport Beach 70, Palm Beach 82: Palm Beach leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Palm Beach 47: Newport Beach leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Palm Beach 45: Palm Beach leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Palm Beach 32: Newport Beach leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Palm Beach 58: Newport Beach leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Palm Beach 55: Newport Beach leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Palm Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Palm Beach 32: Palm Beach leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Palm Beach 66: Palm Beach leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Palm Beach 12: Newport Beach leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Palm Beach 45: Newport Beach leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Palm Beach 55: Palm Beach leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Newport Beach and Palm Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Palm Beach
49match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Newport Beach in July

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

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachPalm Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre). Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachPalm Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m2 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachPalm Beach
City population85,2399,245
People per km²622322
Museums within 10 km44
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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