VacationSelector
Main Street in winter with the mountains behind, Breckenridge
BreckenridgeMain Street in winter with the mountains behind
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Breckenridge by Jeff Gunn, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Breckenridge 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 Breckenridge for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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. Breckenridge 4, Santa Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Breckenridge 33, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Breckenridge 20, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Breckenridge 30, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Breckenridge 90, Santa Monica 72: Breckenridge leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Breckenridge 44, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Breckenridge 60, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Breckenridge 62, Santa Monica 52: Breckenridge leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Breckenridge 25, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Breckenridge 10, Santa Monica 14: Santa Monica leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Breckenridge 32, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Breckenridge 30, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Breckenridge and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Breckenridge
37match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around 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.

Breckenridge in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
41 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

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
BreckenridgeSanta Monica

Where the figures come from

Breckenridge's temperatures are measured 38 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Breckenridge 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. Breckenridge: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (37.7 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBreckenridgeSanta 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
Elevation2,926 m32 m
Main airportDenver International Airport (DEN)124 km from centre231 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBreckenridgeSanta Monica
City population5,07893,076
People per km²3324,270
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 Breckenridge 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. 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.