VacationSelector
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo
Palm Springs

Photos: Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Monaco or Palm Springs?

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 Monaco for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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. Monaco 68, Palm Springs 7: Monaco leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Monaco 57, Palm Springs 40: Monaco leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Monaco 55, Palm Springs 42: Monaco leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Monaco 48, Palm Springs 36: Monaco leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Monaco 70, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Monaco 84, Palm Springs 38: Monaco leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Monaco 60, Palm Springs 40: Monaco leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Monaco 78, Palm Springs 22: Monaco leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Monaco 52, Palm Springs 44: Monaco leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Monaco 3, Palm Springs 32: Palm Springs leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Monaco 63, Palm Springs 40: Monaco leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Monaco 55, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 25 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Monaco and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Monaco
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on prices 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.

Monaco in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MonacoPalm Springs

Where the figures come from

Palm Springs 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. Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMonacoPalm Springs
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCEF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation68 m146 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMonacoPalm Springs
City population38,85744,575
People per km²18,503181
Museums within 10 km143
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Monaco or Palm Springs 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). 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). Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.