Los Angeles or San Francisco?

543 km apart, both in United States. Each is scored month by month on the same ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. This is where they part, and when.

• Los Angeles United States · best May, Jun, Jul
• San Francisco United States · best Apr, May, Jun

Month by month

Each cell is that destination's own verdict for the month — sweet spot, ok or avoid — with its typical daily high and its rainy days ("11d"). The pick goes to the better verdict; with the same verdict, to the higher score, unless the two are within a whisker of each other, when it is either. A month both would avoid is neither. A dot marks a busy month.

Before you go

Both are in United States, so the currency, the plugs and the travel advice are the same: type A and B plugs, driving on the right, paying in the United states dollar. Everything for United States.

Between them

543 km as the crow flies, about 1h 35m in the air.Nonstop, about 45 a day · 11 airlines. By bus, about 8h 23m · FlixBus N2003 · 12.

The flight time is estimated from the distance. A road, train or bus is named only where it was measured — flights from AeroDataBox, roads from OpenRouteService, timetables via Transitous — and none of it is a fare; the searches on each destination's page are where prices live.

Also compared

• Los Angeles or Boston
• Los Angeles or Chicago
• Los Angeles or Mexico City
• Los Angeles or Miami
• Los Angeles or New York
• Los Angeles or Seattle
• Los Angeles or Toronto
• Los Angeles or Vancouver
• San Francisco or Boston
• San Francisco or Chicago
• San Francisco or Mexico City
• San Francisco or Miami

Every verdict here is the destination's own: ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. The comparison is the difference between two pages, not a third opinion.