VacationSelector
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Diego or Shanghai?

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 San Diego for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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. San Diego 72, Shanghai 10: San Diego leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. San Diego 62, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. San Diego 50, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. San Diego 48, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Diego 77, Shanghai 25: San Diego leads by 52 points.
Day trips. San Diego 60, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Good for families. San Diego 96, Shanghai 80: San Diego leads by 16 points.
Getting around. San Diego 38, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. San Diego 44, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 38 points.
Affordability. San Diego 26, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Diego 56, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Diego 45, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Diego
56match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San DiegoShanghai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan DiegoShanghai
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation129 m4 m
Main airportSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan DiegoShanghai
City population1,386,93224,870,895
People per km²1,4383,922
Museums within 10 km2645
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month5 months

Where else could you go?

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