VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Oaxaca or San Francisco?

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 Oaxaca for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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. Oaxaca 5, San Francisco 25: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, San Francisco 82: Oaxaca leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, San Francisco 68: Oaxaca leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, San Francisco 58: Oaxaca leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, San Francisco 14: Oaxaca leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca 38, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, San Francisco 42: Oaxaca leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Oaxaca
54match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaSan Francisco
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,555 m16 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaSan Francisco
City population258,913873,965
People per km²3,0281,455
Museums within 10 km1051
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oaxaca or San Francisco 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.