VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace, Split
SplitThe Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Split by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santa Monica or Split?

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

  • shopping
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Split for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Split’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, Split 75: Split leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Split 57: Santa Monica leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Split 66: Split leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Split 52: Split leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Split 77: Split leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Split 78: Split leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Split 54: Santa Monica leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Split 67: Split leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Split 32: Santa Monica leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Split 45: Split leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Split 37: Santa Monica leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, Split 40: Santa Monica leads by 5 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on shopping and families with your weighting.

Split
Best match
57match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Split in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
25 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaSplit

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaSplit
Official language-Croatian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation32 m0 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsSplit Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaSplit
City population93,076160,577
People per km²4,270-
Museums within 10 km1911
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

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