VacationSelector
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

San Diego or Tampa?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Tampa for

  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: San Diego leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. San Diego 62, Tampa 57: San Diego leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. San Diego 50, Tampa 42: San Diego leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. San Diego 48, Tampa 52: Tampa leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Diego 77, Tampa 55: San Diego leads by 22 points.
Day trips. San Diego 60, Tampa 54: San Diego leads by 6 points.
Good for families. San Diego 96, Tampa 78: San Diego leads by 18 points.
Getting around. San Diego 38, Tampa 22: San Diego leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. San Diego 44, Tampa 40: San Diego leads by 4 points.
Affordability. San Diego 26, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Diego 56, Tampa 47: San Diego leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Diego 45, Tampa 30: San Diego leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Diego and Tampa.

Your match

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

San Diego
Best match
56match

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

Tampa
49match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San DiegoTampa

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). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan DiegoTampa
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation129 m30 m
Main airportSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan DiegoTampa
City population1,386,932384,959
People per km²1,438848
Museums within 10 km266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month8 months

Where else could you go?

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