VacationSelector
The white temple of Wat Kaew Korawaram in Krabi Town, Krabi
KrabiThe white temple of Wat Kaew Korawaram in Krabi Town
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Krabi by Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Krabi 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 Krabi for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • beaches

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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. Krabi 87, Santa Monica 66: Krabi leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Krabi 50, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Krabi 20, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Krabi 33, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Krabi 85, Santa Monica 72: Krabi leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Krabi 40, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Krabi 55, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Krabi 30, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Krabi 20, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Krabi 78, Santa Monica 14: Krabi leads by 64 points.
Live music & performing arts. Krabi 12, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Krabi 72, Santa Monica 45: Krabi leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Krabi and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Krabi
49match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Krabi in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
212 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KrabiSanta Monica

Where the figures come from

Krabi's temperatures are measured 67 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Krabi 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. Krabi: 1991-2020 normals, Phuket Airport (66.6 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKrabiSanta Monica
Official languageThai-
CurrencyBaht (THB)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199911
Elevation16 m32 m
Main airportKrabi International Airport (KBV)9 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKrabiSanta Monica
City population30,49993,076
People per km²-4,270
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Krabi 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.