VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Boston 35, Santa Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Santa Monica 60: Boston leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Santa Monica 35: Boston leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Santa Monica 38: Boston leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Santa Monica 72: Santa Monica leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, Santa Monica 64: Boston leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, Santa Monica 70: Boston leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Santa Monica 52: Boston leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Santa Monica 14: Boston leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Santa Monica 38: Boston leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Santa Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BostonSanta Monica

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonSanta Monica
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation43 m32 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonSanta Monica
City population675,64793,076
People per km²2,9104,270
Museums within 10 km5119
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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