VacationSelector
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower
The harbour front with the church tower above the houses, Saint-Tropez
Saint-TropezThe harbour front with the church tower above the houses

Photos: Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Saint-Tropez by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Shanghai or Saint-Tropez?

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 Shanghai for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Saint-Tropez for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Saint-Tropez’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. Shanghai 10, Saint-Tropez 82: Saint-Tropez leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Shanghai 88, Saint-Tropez 48: Shanghai leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Shanghai 72, Saint-Tropez 35: Shanghai leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Shanghai 80, Saint-Tropez 60: Shanghai leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Shanghai 25, Saint-Tropez 72: Saint-Tropez leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Shanghai 90, Saint-Tropez 57: Shanghai leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Shanghai 80, Saint-Tropez 42: Shanghai leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Shanghai 85, Saint-Tropez 32: Shanghai leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Shanghai 82, Saint-Tropez 64: Shanghai leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Shanghai 55, Saint-Tropez 8: Shanghai leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Shanghai 66, Saint-Tropez 18: Shanghai leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Shanghai 55, Saint-Tropez 35: Shanghai leads by 20 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Shanghai and Saint-Tropez.

Your match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Saint-Tropez
46match

Wins on beaches 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.

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Saint-Tropez in July

32 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
10 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ShanghaiSaint-Tropez

Where the figures come from

Saint-Tropez 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.

Saint-Tropez's sunshine is measured 62 km from the centre, at Nice.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre). Saint-Tropez: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Le Luc (24.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureShanghaiSaint-Tropez
Official languagePutonghuaFrench
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation4 m0 m
Main airportShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)64 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureShanghaiSaint-Tropez
City population24,870,8953,582
People per km²3,922320
Museums within 10 km454
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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