VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
A chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain, Whistler
WhistlerA chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Whistler by Ruth Hartnup, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Francisco or Whistler?

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
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Whistler for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Whistler’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, Whistler 30: Whistler leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Whistler 40: San Francisco leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Whistler 20: San Francisco leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Whistler 42: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Whistler 97: Whistler leads by 17 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Whistler 30: San Francisco leads by 42 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 2 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Whistler 68: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Whistler 30: San Francisco leads by 28 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Whistler 12: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Whistler 15: San Francisco leads by 61 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Whistler 60: Whistler leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and Whistler.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Whistler
43match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Whistler in July

25 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoWhistler

Where the figures come from

Whistler has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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). Whistler: 1991-2020 normals, Whistler - Nesters (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoWhistler
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 m670 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)104 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoWhistler
City population873,96513,982
People per km²1,45558
Museums within 10 km511
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Francisco or Whistler 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.