VacationSelector
Comares Tower and the Palace of Charles V, Alhambra, Granada
GranadaComares Tower and the Palace of Charles V, Alhambra
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Granada by Jebulon, CC0; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Granada 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 Granada for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

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. Granada 38, Santa Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Granada 62, Santa Monica 60: Granada leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Granada 80, Santa Monica 35: Granada leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Granada 58, Santa Monica 38: Granada leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Granada 80, Santa Monica 72: Granada leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Granada 76, Santa Monica 64: Granada leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Granada 52, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Granada 68, Santa Monica 52: Granada leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Granada 40, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Granada 63, Santa Monica 14: Granada leads by 49 points.
Live music & performing arts. Granada 58, Santa Monica 38: Granada leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Granada 48, Santa Monica 45: Granada leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Granada and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Granada
Best match
60match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on beaches 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.

Granada in July

35 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
GranadaSanta Monica

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Granada: 1991-2020 normals, Granada / Caserío Hospicio (5 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGranadaSanta Monica
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation693 m32 m
Main airportF.G.L. Airport Granada-Jaén Airport (GRX)16 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGranadaSanta Monica
City population233,97593,076
People per km²2,6594,270
Museums within 10 km2019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Granada 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.