VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

San Francisco or Tokyo?

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

  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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, Tokyo 40: Tokyo leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Tokyo 68: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 13 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 29 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 41 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Tokyo 48: Tokyo leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 36 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Francisco
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on shopping 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

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoTokyo

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). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoTokyo
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation16 m6 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoTokyo
City population873,96514,264,798
People per km²1,4556,501
Museums within 10 km51192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

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