VacationSelector
The arch at the entrance to the boardwalk, Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, MarylandThe arch at the entrance to the boardwalk
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Ocean City, Maryland by Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Ocean City, Maryland 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 Ocean City, Maryland for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocean City, Maryland’s own page.

Choose Santa Monica for

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • 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. Ocean City, Maryland 78, Santa Monica 66: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Ocean City, Maryland 40, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Ocean City, Maryland 14, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Ocean City, Maryland 45, Santa Monica 38: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocean City, Maryland 50, Santa Monica 72: Santa Monica leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Ocean City, Maryland 42, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Ocean City, Maryland 78, Santa Monica 70: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Ocean City, Maryland 34, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Ocean City, Maryland 24, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Ocean City, Maryland 40, Santa Monica 14: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocean City, Maryland 18, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocean City, Maryland 22, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 23 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocean City, Maryland and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Ocean City, Maryland
40match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on shopping 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.

Ocean City, Maryland in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Ocean City, MarylandSanta Monica

Where the figures come from

Ocean City, Maryland 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. Ocean City, Maryland: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Ocean City / Morris Mobile Home Park (10.2 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcean City, MarylandSanta 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
Elevation2 m32 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)39 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcean City, MarylandSanta Monica
City population6,84493,076
People per km²734,270
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ocean City, Maryland 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.