VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Oaxaca 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 Oaxaca for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Oaxaca 5, Santa Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Santa Monica 60: Oaxaca leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, Santa Monica 35: Oaxaca leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, Santa Monica 38: Oaxaca leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, Santa Monica 72: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Santa Monica 64: Oaxaca leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Santa Monica 52: Oaxaca leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Santa Monica 56: Oaxaca leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Santa Monica 14: Oaxaca leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca and Santa Monica are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, Santa Monica 45: Oaxaca leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Oaxaca
Best match
54match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on beaches 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.

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaSanta Monica

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaSanta Monica
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,555 m32 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaSanta Monica
City population258,91393,076
People per km²3,0284,270
Museums within 10 km1019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oaxaca 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.