VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • getting around
  • families
  • beaches

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. Cape Town 58, Santa Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Santa Monica 60: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Santa Monica 35: Cape Town leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Santa Monica 38: Cape Town leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Santa Monica 72: Cape Town leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Santa Monica 64: Cape Town leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Santa Monica 14: Cape Town leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Santa Monica 38: Cape Town leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town and Santa Monica are level on 45.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

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

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownSanta Monica

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownSanta Monica
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language-
CurrencyRand (ZAR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation5 m32 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownSanta Monica
City population3,776,31393,076
People per km²1,5384,270
Museums within 10 km2219
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cape Town 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.