VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The British Columbia Parliament Buildings, Victoria
VictoriaThe British Columbia Parliament Buildings

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Victoria by Guilice, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Francisco or Victoria?

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
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Victoria for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria’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, Victoria 28: Victoria leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Victoria 50: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Victoria 42: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Victoria 30: San Francisco leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Victoria 77: San Francisco leads by 3 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Victoria 54: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Victoria 62: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Victoria 60: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Victoria 40: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Victoria 34: Victoria leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Victoria 40: San Francisco leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Victoria 48: Victoria leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

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

Victoria
47match

Wins on prices 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

Victoria in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoVictoria

Where the figures come from

Victoria's sunshine is measured 87 km from the centre, at Vancouver International Airport.

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). Victoria: 1991-2020 normals, Victoria Gonzales CS (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoVictoria
Official language-French, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation16 m23 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsVictoria International Airport (YYJ)25 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoVictoria
City population873,96591,867
People per km²1,4554,711
Museums within 10 km516
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Victoria 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.