Mexico City or San Francisco?

3,029 km apart, in Mexico and 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.

• Mexico City Mexico · best Feb, Mar, Apr
• 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

• Cost of living — Mexico City: cheap, about 54% of the United States; San Francisco: expensive, about 100% of the United States.
• Currency — Mexico City: Peso; San Francisco: United states dollar.
• Plugs — Mexico City: type A and B, 127 V; San Francisco: type A and B, 120 V.
• Driving — Mexico City: on the right; San Francisco: on the right.
• Travel advice — Mexico City: avoid all but essential travel to parts; San Francisco: no advice against travel.

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

Between them

3,029 km as the crow flies, about 4h 37m in the air.Nonstop, about 5 a day · Aeromexico, United Airlines.

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

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