VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

San Francisco or Wilmington?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Wilmington 48: San Francisco leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Wilmington 40: San Francisco leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Wilmington 40: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Wilmington 58: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Wilmington 45: San Francisco leads by 27 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Wilmington 62: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Wilmington 28: San Francisco leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Wilmington 33: San Francisco leads by 25 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Wilmington 40: San Francisco leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Wilmington 33: San Francisco leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and Wilmington.

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.

Wilmington
45match

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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoWilmington

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). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoWilmington
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 m9 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoWilmington
City population873,965115,451
People per km²1,455839
Museums within 10 km512
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

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