VacationSelector
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Porto 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 Porto for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • beaches
  • 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. Porto 40, Santa Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Porto 70, Santa Monica 60: Porto leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Porto 68, Santa Monica 35: Porto leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Porto 65, Santa Monica 38: Porto leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Porto 64, Santa Monica 72: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Porto 79, Santa Monica 64: Porto leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Porto 52, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Porto 66, Santa Monica 52: Porto leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Porto 52, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Porto 62, Santa Monica 14: Porto leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Porto 52, Santa Monica 38: Porto leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Porto 34, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Porto and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Porto
Best match
59match

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.

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
PortoSanta Monica

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortoSanta Monica
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation104 m32 m
Main airportFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre133 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortoSanta Monica
City population273,47693,076
People per km²6,6064,270
Museums within 10 km4219
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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