VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santa Monica or Sarasota?

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 Santa Monica for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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. Santa Monica 66, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Sarasota 44: Santa Monica leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Sarasota 28: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Sarasota 55: Santa Monica leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Sarasota 50: Santa Monica leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Sarasota 68: Santa Monica leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Sarasota 28: Santa Monica leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Sarasota 40: Santa Monica leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Sarasota 30: Sarasota leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica and Sarasota are level on 45.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Santa Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

Wins on beaches 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.

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

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaSarasota

Where the figures come from

Sarasota 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.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaSarasota
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation32 m7 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaSarasota
City population93,07654,842
People per km²4,270840
Museums within 10 km193
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Monica or Sarasota 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.