VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

San Francisco or Tampa?

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

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tampa for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Tampa leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Tampa 57: San Francisco leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Tampa 42: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Tampa 52: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Tampa 55: San Francisco leads by 25 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Tampa 54: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 12 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Tampa 22: San Francisco leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Tampa 40: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Tampa 47: San Francisco leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Tampa 30: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and Tampa.

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tampa
49match

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
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoTampa

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). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoTampa
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 m30 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoTampa
City population873,965384,959
People per km²1,455848
Museums within 10 km516
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Francisco or Tampa 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.