VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

San Francisco or York?

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

  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose York for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: San Francisco leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, York 42: San Francisco leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, York 70: York leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, York 36: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, York 62: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, York 80: York leads by 8 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, York 60: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, York 72: York leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, York 46: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, York 38: York leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, York 38: San Francisco leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, York 34: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

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

York
49match

Wins on prices and day trips 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

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). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoYork
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation16 m25 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoYork
City population873,965208,400
People per km²1,455766
Museums within 10 km5124
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 York 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.