VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
Savannah City Hall and its golden dome, Savannah
SavannahSavannah City Hall and its golden dome

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Savannah by Chris M Morris, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Francisco or Savannah?

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 Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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

Choose Savannah for

  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Savannah’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 Francisco 25, Savannah 55: Savannah leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Savannah 58: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco and Savannah are level on 68.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Savannah 52: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Savannah 48: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Savannah 60: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Savannah 50: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Savannah 58: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Savannah 42: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Savannah 35: Savannah leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Savannah 40: San Francisco leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Savannah 40: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and Savannah.

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Savannah
51match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Francisco in July

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

Savannah in July

34 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
144 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoSavannah

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). Savannah: 1991-2020 normals, Savannah Airport (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoSavannah
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
Elevation16 m15 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsSavannah Hilton Head International Airport (SAV)12 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoSavannah
City population873,965147,780
People per km²1,455524
Museums within 10 km5119
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Francisco or Savannah 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.