VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

San Francisco or Valencia?

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

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

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

Choose Valencia for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Valencia 74: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco and Valencia are level on 68.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Valencia 60: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Valencia 70: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 9 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Valencia 57: San Francisco leads by 1 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Valencia 55: San Francisco leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco and Valencia are level on 42.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Francisco
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Valencia
Best match
65match

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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoValencia

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). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoValencia
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation16 m15 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoValencia
City population873,965840,792
People per km²1,4556,242
Museums within 10 km5145
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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