VacationSelector
The fountain in Piazza De Ferrari, Genoa
GenoaThe fountain in Piazza De Ferrari
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Genoa by Faber1893, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Genoa 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 Genoa for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • families

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. Genoa 62, Santa Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Genoa 72, Santa Monica 60: Genoa leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Genoa 76, Santa Monica 35: Genoa leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Genoa 42, Santa Monica 38: Genoa leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Genoa 78, Santa Monica 72: Genoa leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Genoa 83, Santa Monica 64: Genoa leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Genoa 64, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Genoa 66, Santa Monica 52: Genoa leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Genoa 48, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Genoa 55, Santa Monica 14: Genoa leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Genoa 52, Santa Monica 38: Genoa leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Genoa 35, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Genoa and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Genoa
Best match
61match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on wellness 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.

Genoa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GenoaSanta Monica

Where the figures come from

Genoa 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.

Genoa's sunshine is measured 80 km from the centre, at Capo Mele.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Genoa: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (6.7 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGenoaSanta Monica
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation20 m32 m
Main airportGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)7 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGenoaSanta Monica
City population558,74593,076
People per km²2,3254,270
Museums within 10 km5119
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Genoa 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.