VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santa Monica or Shanghai?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Santa Monica leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Shanghai 25: Santa Monica leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaShanghai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaShanghai
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation32 m4 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaShanghai
City population93,07624,870,895
People per km²4,2703,922
Museums within 10 km1945
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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