VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Francisco or Stockholm?

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

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

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • families
  • prices
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’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, Stockholm 40: Stockholm leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Stockholm 64: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Stockholm 57: San Francisco leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Stockholm 72: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Stockholm 68: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 16 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 12 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Stockholm 30: Stockholm leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Stockholm 65: San Francisco leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 14 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and Stockholm.

Your match

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

San Francisco
59match

Wins on food and drink and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Stockholm
Best match
64match

Wins on families 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
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoStockholm

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

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). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoStockholm
Official language-Swedish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation16 m22 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoStockholm
City population873,965984,748
People per km²1,4555,260
Museums within 10 km51266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Francisco or Stockholm 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.