VacationSelector
A purple lifeguard tower on South Beach, Miami Beach
Miami BeachA purple lifeguard tower on South Beach
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Miami Beach by Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Miami Beach 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 Miami Beach for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • 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. Miami Beach 92, Santa Monica 66: Miami Beach leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Miami Beach 62, Santa Monica 60: Miami Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Miami Beach 52, Santa Monica 35: Miami Beach leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Miami Beach 80, Santa Monica 38: Miami Beach leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Miami Beach 52, Santa Monica 72: Santa Monica leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Miami Beach 55, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Miami Beach 60, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Miami Beach 58, Santa Monica 52: Miami Beach leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Miami Beach 55, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Miami Beach 20, Santa Monica 14: Miami Beach leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Miami Beach 55, Santa Monica 38: Miami Beach leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Miami Beach 48, Santa Monica 45: Miami Beach leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Miami Beach and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Miami Beach
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Miami Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Miami BeachSanta Monica

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Miami Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (18.8 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMiami BeachSanta Monica
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1 m32 m
Main airportMiami International Airport (MIA)16 km from centre198 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMiami BeachSanta Monica
City population82,89093,076
People per km²2,1094,270
Museums within 10 km1419
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 Miami Beach 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). 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.