VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
A chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain, Whistler
WhistlerA chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Whistler by Ruth Hartnup, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Newport Beach or Whistler?

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
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Whistler for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Whistler’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, Whistler 30: Newport Beach leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Whistler 40: Newport Beach leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach and Whistler are level on 20.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Whistler 42: Whistler leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Whistler 97: Whistler leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Whistler 30: Newport Beach leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Whistler 68: Newport Beach leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Whistler 30: Newport Beach leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Whistler 12: Newport Beach leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Whistler 15: Newport Beach leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Whistler 60: Whistler leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Newport Beach and Whistler.

Your match

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

Newport Beach
Best match
48match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Whistler
43match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Whistler in July

25 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachWhistler

Where the figures come from

Whistler 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). Whistler: 1991-2020 normals, Whistler - Nesters (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachWhistler
Official language-French, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m670 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)104 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachWhistler
City population85,23913,982
People per km²62258
Museums within 10 km41
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 Whistler 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.