VacationSelector
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Positano 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 Positano for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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. Positano 77, Santa Monica 66: Positano leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Positano 40, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Positano 22, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Positano 22, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Positano 80, Santa Monica 72: Positano leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Positano 88, Santa Monica 64: Positano leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Positano 28, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Positano 35, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Positano 45, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Positano 10, Santa Monica 14: Santa Monica leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Positano 15, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Positano and Santa Monica are level on 45.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Positano and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Positano
42match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on families and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PositanoSanta Monica

Where the figures come from

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano 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.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePositanoSanta Monica
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation142 m32 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePositanoSanta Monica
City population3,72993,076
People per km²4294,270
Museums within 10 km1019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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