VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

San Francisco or Sydney?

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 Sydney for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Sydney 77: San Francisco leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Sydney 60: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 5 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Sydney 50: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 9 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 10 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Sydney 22: Sydney leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Sydney 73: San Francisco leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 13 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Francisco
59match

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

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoSydney

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). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoSydney
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation16 m6 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoSydney
City population873,9655,450,496
People per km²1,455449
Museums within 10 km5138
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Sydney 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.