San Diego or Washington DC?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and places to eat with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. San Diego leads by 45 points.45
| San Diego | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 18 |
| Swim season months | 1 | 3 |
| Beaches 10 km | 42 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 34 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 34 km |
Places to eat. Washington DC leads by 14 points.14
| San Diego | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 77 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 823 | 1,666 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 27 | 36 |
Museums & heritage. Washington DC leads by 11 points.11
| San Diego | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 59 | 83 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 30 | 55 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 51 | 66 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Washington DC leads by 11 points.11
| San Diego | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 61 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 615 | 1,029 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 408 | 593 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 66 | 58 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 31 | 54 |
Nature & day trips. San Diego leads by 13 points.13
| San Diego | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 42 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 10 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 1 |
| Land share of disc % | 52 | 94 |
| Park area within 2 km | 308 hectares | 96 hectares |
Good for families. San Diego leads by 37 points.37
| San Diego | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 40 | 7 |
| Park area within 2 km | 308 hectares | 96 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Washington DC leads by 36 points.36
| San Diego | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 76 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 40 | 305 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. San Diego and Washington DC are level on 43.
| San Diego | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. San Diego leads by 26 points.26
| San Diego | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 62 |
| Monthly daytime high | 18.6 °C to 25 °C | 7 °C to 31.7 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 0 mm to 56 mm | 65 mm to 108 mm |
| Dry months | 9 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | San Diego | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 5 h 15 m €299-455 1 stop SAN · 3 km | 1 h 5 m €233-271 DCA · 5 km |
| Las VegasLAS | 1 h 10 m no fares SAN · 3 km | 4 h 35 m no fares DCA · 5 km |
| BostonBOS, PSM | 5 h 35 m no fares SAN · 3 km | 1 h 25 m €162-173 DCA · 5 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 3 h 55 m no fares SAN · 3 km | 1 h 50 m €199-215 DCA · 5 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 2 h 55 m no fares SAN · 3 km | 2 h 55 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 1 h 30 m €121-158 SAN · 3 km | 5 h 15 m €284-334 1 stop DCA · 5 km |
| DenverDEN, APA | 2 h 15 m €64-224 SAN · 3 km | 3 h 25 m no fares DCA · 5 km |
| SeattleSEA, BFI | 2 h 40 m no fares SAN · 3 km | 5 h 5 m €329-399 1 stop DCA · 5 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 11 h 0 m no fares SAN · 3 km | 7 h 35 m €507-561 1 stop IAD · 37 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 11 h 15 m no fares SAN · 3 km | 13 h 30 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | San Diego | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 129 m | 72 m |
| Main airport | San Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations | Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre103 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | San Diego | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,386,932 | 689,545 |
| People per km² | 1,438 | 3,896 |
| Museums within 10 km | 26 | 99 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 44 | 82 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 1 month | 3 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Diego or Washington DC somewhere new.