VacationSelector
Skiers among snow-covered firs, Beaver Creek
Beaver CreekSkiers among snow-covered firs
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Beaver Creek by Joe Lin, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Beaver Creek or Santa Monica?

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 Beaver Creek for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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. Beaver Creek 6, Santa Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Beaver Creek 38, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Beaver Creek 7, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Beaver Creek 12, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beaver Creek 90, Santa Monica 72: Beaver Creek leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Beaver Creek 40, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Beaver Creek 62, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Beaver Creek 45, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Beaver Creek 22, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Beaver Creek 5, Santa Monica 14: Santa Monica leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beaver Creek 36, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beaver Creek 55, Santa Monica 45: Beaver Creek leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beaver Creek and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Beaver Creek
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

Santa Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Beaver Creek in July

29 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Santa Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
Beaver CreekSanta Monica

Where the figures come from

Beaver Creek's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Eagle County / Gypsum.

Beaver Creek's station stands 268 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Beaver Creek 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beaver Creek: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Eagle County / Gypsum (33.8 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeaver CreekSanta Monica
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,264 m32 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)34 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeaver CreekSanta Monica
City population-93,076
People per km²-4,270
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beaver Creek or Santa Monica somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.