VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Monica or Sorrento?

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

  • families
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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, Sorrento 60: Santa Monica leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica and Sorrento are level on 60.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Sorrento 32: Santa Monica leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Sorrento 28: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Sorrento 80: Sorrento leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Sorrento 42: Santa Monica leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Sorrento 58: Sorrento leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Sorrento 38: Santa Monica leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Sorrento 32: Sorrento leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Sorrento 20: Santa Monica leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, Sorrento 48: Sorrento leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and Sorrento.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on families and shopping with your weighting.

Sorrento
49match

Wins on day trips 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

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaSorrento

Where the figures come from

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaSorrento
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation32 m50 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaSorrento
City population93,07615,407
People per km²4,2701,541
Museums within 10 km196
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
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 Sorrento 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.