San Francisco or Seoul?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 1 point apart
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage and value for money 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 Francisco leads by 45 points.45
| San Francisco | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 15 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 2 |
| Beaches 10 km | 44 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 28 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | 28 km |
Places to eat. Seoul leads by 2 points.2
| San Francisco | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83 | 85 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,359 | 3,559 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 39 | 32 |
Museums & heritage. Seoul leads by 39 points.39
| San Francisco | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 83 |
| Museums within 10 km | 57 | 203 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 29 | 90 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 51 | 44 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 5 |
Nightlife. Seoul leads by 12 points.12
| San Francisco | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 80 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,434 | 3,291 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 928 | 1,630 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 65 | 50 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 97 | 29 |
Nature & day trips. San Francisco leads by 28 points.28
| San Francisco | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 32 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 17 | 1 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 4 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 57 | 95 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 126 hectares |
Good for families. Seoul leads by 22 points.22
| San Francisco | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 79 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 48 | 62 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 126 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 8 |
Sights concentration. San Francisco leads by 4 points.4
| San Francisco | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 59 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 147 | 118 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Seoul leads by 29 points.29
| San Francisco | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 72 |
| Price level global | 100 | 59.4 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. San Francisco leads by 17 points.17
| San Francisco | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 61 |
| Monthly daytime high | 14 °C to 23.2 °C | 2 °C to 30 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 0 mm to 105 mm | 18 mm to 422 mm |
| Dry months | 7 | 4 |
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 Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | San Francisco | Seoul |
|---|---|---|
| TokyoHND, NRT | 10 h 25 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 2 h 5 m €140-229 ICN · 49 km |
| OsakaKIX, ITM, UKB | 10 h 55 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 1 h 40 m €139-234 ICN · 49 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 5 h 35 m €286-328 1 stop SFO · 18 km | 13 h 45 m €770-823 ICN · 49 km |
| VancouverYVR, YDT | 2 h 10 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 10 h 20 m no fares ICN · 49 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 11 h 25 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 10 h 45 m €646-685 ICN · 49 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 11 h 15 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 11 h 10 m €687-728 2 stops ICN · 49 km |
| Hong KongHKG | 13 h 45 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 3 h 5 m €172-189 ICN · 49 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 10 h 50 m no fares SFO · 18 km | 11 h 5 m €603-659 1 stop ICN · 49 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 4 h 15 m no fares OAK · 18 km | 14 h 55 m €1,052-1072 2 stops ICN · 49 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 16 h 0 m €1,005-1027 1 stop SFO · 18 km | 8 h 35 m no fares ICN · 49 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 2026-09 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 Francisco | Seoul |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | – | Korean, Korean Sign Language |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | Won (KRW) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | CF220 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer | UTC+9 |
| Emergency number | 911 | Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119 |
| Elevation | 16 m | 38 m |
| Main airport | San Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations | Incheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre161 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 18 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | San Francisco | Seoul |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 873,965 | 9,668,465 |
| People per km² | 1,455 | 15,973 |
| Museums within 10 km | 50 | 80 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 108 | 156 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | 2 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Francisco or Seoul somewhere new.