VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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. Paphos 76, San Francisco 25: Paphos leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, San Francisco 66: Paphos leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, San Francisco 14: Paphos leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 54 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos and San Francisco are level on 42.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Paphos
50match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosSan Francisco

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosSan Francisco
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation72 m16 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosSan Francisco
City population35,961873,965
People per km²1,9871,455
Museums within 10 km451
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.