VacationSelector
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped; San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Palm Beach or San Diego?

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 Palm Beach for

  • shopping
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose San Diego for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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. Palm Beach 82, San Diego 72: Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Palm Beach 47, San Diego 62: San Diego leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Palm Beach 45, San Diego 50: San Diego leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Palm Beach 32, San Diego 48: San Diego leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palm Beach 58, San Diego 77: San Diego leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Palm Beach 55, San Diego 60: San Diego leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Palm Beach 62, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Palm Beach 32, San Diego 38: San Diego leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Palm Beach 66, San Diego 44: Palm Beach leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Palm Beach 12, San Diego 26: San Diego leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palm Beach 45, San Diego 56: San Diego leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palm Beach 55, San Diego 45: Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palm Beach and San Diego.

Your match

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

Palm Beach
49match

Wins on shopping and beaches with your weighting.

San Diego
Best match
56match

Wins on families 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.

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Palm BeachSan Diego

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalm BeachSan Diego
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2 m129 m
Main airportPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalm BeachSan Diego
City population9,2451,386,932
People per km²3221,438
Museums within 10 km426
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Palm Beach or San Diego 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.