VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

Santa Monica or Seoul?

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

  • beaches

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

Choose Seoul for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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, Seoul 18: Santa Monica leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Seoul 77: Seoul leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Seoul 50: Seoul leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Seoul 63: Seoul leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 30 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on beaches with your weighting.

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights 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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaSeoul

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaSeoul
Official language-Korean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Won (KRW)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation32 m38 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaSeoul
City population93,0769,668,465
People per km²4,27015,973
Museums within 10 km1981
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone2 months

Where else could you go?

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