VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
The lighthouse and the peninsula in evening light, Punta del Este
Punta del EsteThe lighthouse and the peninsula in evening light

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Punta del Este by Marcelo Campi, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Newport Beach or Punta del Este?

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

  • day trips
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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, Punta del Este 72: Punta del Este leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Punta del Este 45: Newport Beach leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Punta del Este 22: Punta del Este leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Punta del Este 60: Punta del Este leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Punta del Este 55: Newport Beach leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Punta del Este 45: Newport Beach leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Punta del Este 55: Newport Beach leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Punta del Este 35: Punta del Este leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Punta del Este 42: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Punta del Este 20: Punta del Este leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Punta del Este 22: Newport Beach leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Punta del Este 32: Newport Beach leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Newport Beach
Best match
48match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Punta del Este
42match

Wins on nightlife and getting around 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
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachPunta del Este

Where the figures come from

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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). Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachPunta del Este
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m11 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachPunta del Este
City population85,2399,277
People per km²622455
Museums within 10 km45
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

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