VacationSelector
A palm-lined Hollywood street with the Hollywood Sign behind, Los Angeles
Los AngelesA palm-lined Hollywood street with the Hollywood Sign behind
The SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach

Photos: Los Angeles by BenSherman, Public domain; Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Los Angeles or Myrtle Beach?

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 Los Angeles for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Myrtle Beach for

  • prices
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Myrtle Beach’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. Los Angeles 60, Myrtle Beach 84: Myrtle Beach leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Myrtle Beach 38: Los Angeles leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Myrtle Beach 20: Los Angeles leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Myrtle Beach 42: Los Angeles leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Myrtle Beach 46: Los Angeles leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Myrtle Beach 50: Los Angeles leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Myrtle Beach 80: Los Angeles leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Myrtle Beach 18: Los Angeles leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Myrtle Beach 38: Los Angeles leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Myrtle Beach 52: Myrtle Beach leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Myrtle Beach 30: Los Angeles leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Myrtle Beach 28: Los Angeles leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Myrtle Beach.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Myrtle Beach
44match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesMyrtle Beach

Where the figures come from

Myrtle Beach 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. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesMyrtle Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation106 m8 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesMyrtle Beach
City population3,898,74735,682
People per km²2,994591
Museums within 10 km392
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Angeles or Myrtle Beach 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.