VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Francisco or Steamboat Springs?

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

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Steamboat Springs 30: San Francisco leads by 52 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Steamboat Springs 14: San Francisco leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Steamboat Springs 20: San Francisco leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 8 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Steamboat Springs 12: San Francisco leads by 60 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Steamboat Springs 62: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Steamboat Springs 46: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Steamboat Springs 22: San Francisco leads by 36 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Steamboat Springs 17: Steamboat Springs leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Steamboat Springs 28: San Francisco leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoSteamboat Springs

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoSteamboat Springs
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation16 m2,052 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoSteamboat Springs
City population873,96513,224
People per km²1,455503
Museums within 10 km510
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Francisco or Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.