VacationSelector
Elizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth, Perth
PerthElizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Perth by Samuel Wiki, CC BY 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Perth 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 Perth for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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. Perth 86, San Francisco 25: Perth leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Perth 58, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Perth 42, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Perth 42, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Perth 72, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Perth 48, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Perth 74, San Francisco 66: Perth leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Perth 55, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Perth 44, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Perth 28, San Francisco 14: Perth leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Perth 50, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Perth 38, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Perth and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Perth
53match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Perth in July

19 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
10 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
PerthSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Perth: 1991-2020 normals, Perth (7.3 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePerthSan Francisco
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation2 m16 m
Main airportPerth International Airport (PER)10 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePerthSan Francisco
City population2,141,834873,965
People per km²3341,455
Museums within 10 km1551
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Perth 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.