VacationSelector
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Puerto Escondido 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 Puerto Escondido for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • families

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. Puerto Escondido 82, Santa Monica 66: Puerto Escondido leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Escondido 48, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Escondido 8, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Escondido 45, Santa Monica 38: Puerto Escondido leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Escondido 78, Santa Monica 72: Puerto Escondido leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Puerto Escondido 35, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Puerto Escondido 42, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Puerto Escondido 40, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Escondido 22, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Puerto Escondido 68, Santa Monica 14: Puerto Escondido leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Escondido 12, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Escondido 58, Santa Monica 45: Puerto Escondido leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Escondido and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Puerto Escondido
45match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on shopping and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Puerto Escondido in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto EscondidoSanta Monica

Where the figures come from

Puerto Escondido's temperatures are measured 66 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Puerto Escondido 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. Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto EscondidoSanta 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
Elevation60 m32 m
Main airportPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto EscondidoSanta Monica
City population29,90393,076
People per km²-4,270
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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