VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
White sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach, Pensacola
PensacolaWhite sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Pensacola by Jason Meredith, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Newport Beach or Pensacola?

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

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Pensacola for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Pensacola’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, Pensacola 84: Pensacola leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Pensacola 45: Newport Beach leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Pensacola 45: Pensacola leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Pensacola 42: Pensacola leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Pensacola 62: Newport Beach leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Pensacola 45: Newport Beach leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Pensacola 62: Newport Beach leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Pensacola 18: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Pensacola 28: Newport Beach leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Pensacola 44: Pensacola leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Pensacola 36: Newport Beach leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Pensacola 30: Newport Beach leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Newport Beach and Pensacola.

Your match

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

Newport Beach
Best match
48match

Wins on shopping and day trips with your weighting.

Pensacola
45match

Wins on prices 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.

Newport Beach in July

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

Pensacola in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 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 BeachPensacola

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). Pensacola: 1991-2020 normals, Pensacola / Pleasant Grove (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachPensacola
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m31 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)6 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachPensacola
City population85,23954,312
People per km²622515
Museums within 10 km45
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone7 months

Where else could you go?

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