VacationSelector
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
GlasgowKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

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

Glasgow 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 Glasgow for

  • live music and the arts
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Glasgow 14, Santa Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Glasgow 52, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Glasgow 62, Santa Monica 35: Glasgow leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Glasgow 66, Santa Monica 38: Glasgow leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Glasgow 75, Santa Monica 72: Glasgow leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Glasgow 76, Santa Monica 64: Glasgow leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Glasgow 58, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Glasgow 66, Santa Monica 52: Glasgow leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Glasgow 64, Santa Monica 56: Glasgow leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Glasgow 46, Santa Monica 14: Glasgow leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Glasgow 72, Santa Monica 38: Glasgow leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Glasgow 28, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Glasgow and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Glasgow
Best match
57match

Wins on live music and the arts and prices 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.

Glasgow in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GlasgowSanta Monica

Where the figures come from

Glasgow 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.

Glasgow's sunshine is measured 90 km from the centre, at Eskdalemuir.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Glasgow: 1991-2020 normals, Glasgow Airport (11.5 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGlasgowSanta Monica
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation21 m32 m
Main airportGlasgow Airport (GLA)11 km from centre95 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGlasgowSanta Monica
City population626,41093,076
People per km²1904,270
Museums within 10 km2919
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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