VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Newport Beach or Tampa?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Tampa for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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 and Tampa are level on 70.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Tampa 57: Tampa leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Tampa 42: Tampa leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Tampa 52: Tampa leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Tampa 55: Newport Beach leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Tampa 54: Newport Beach leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Tampa 78: Newport Beach leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Tampa 22: Tampa leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Tampa 40: Newport Beach leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Tampa 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 Tampa.

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 shopping and day trips with your weighting.

Tampa
49match

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
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachTampa

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). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachTampa
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 m30 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachTampa
City population85,239384,959
People per km²622848
Museums within 10 km46
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

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