VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

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

Newport Beach or Portland?

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

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Portland for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Newport Beach leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Portland 68: Portland leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Portland 38: Portland leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Portland 52: Portland leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Portland 84: Portland leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Portland 58: Newport Beach leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Portland 55: Newport Beach leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Portland 62: Portland leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Portland 52: Newport Beach leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Portland 38: Portland leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Portland 55: Portland leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Portland 42: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Newport Beach and Portland.

Your match

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

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on getting around 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.

Newport Beach in July

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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachPortland

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). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachPortland
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m152 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachPortland
City population85,239652,503
People per km²6221,736
Museums within 10 km417
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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