VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Montpellier 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 Montpellier for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • shopping
  • families
  • wellness

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. Montpellier 64, Santa Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, Santa Monica 60: Montpellier leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, Santa Monica 35: Montpellier leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, Santa Monica 38: Montpellier leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier and Santa Monica are level on 72.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, Santa Monica 64: Montpellier leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, Santa Monica 52: Montpellier leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, Santa Monica 14: Montpellier leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, Santa Monica 38: Montpellier leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier 42, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montpellier and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Montpellier
Best match
62match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on shopping 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.

Montpellier in July

30 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
17 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MontpellierSanta Monica

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierSanta Monica
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m32 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierSanta Monica
City population310,24093,076
People per km²5,4524,270
Museums within 10 km1419
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montpellier 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). 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. 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.