VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The glass bubble of the Dalí Museum above its garden, St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg, FloridaThe glass bubble of the Dalí Museum above its garden

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; St. Petersburg, Florida by Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Monica or St. Petersburg, Florida?

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
  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose St. Petersburg, Florida for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Petersburg, Florida’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, St. Petersburg, Florida 85: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, St. Petersburg, Florida 44: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, St. Petersburg, Florida 58: Santa Monica leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, St. Petersburg, Florida 55: Santa Monica leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica and St. Petersburg, Florida are level on 70.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, St. Petersburg, Florida 33: Santa Monica leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, St. Petersburg, Florida 38: Santa Monica leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, St. Petersburg, Florida 35: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, St. Petersburg, Florida 42: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, St. Petersburg, Florida 40: Santa Monica leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

St. Petersburg, Florida
50match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

St. Petersburg, Florida in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
197 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 MonicaSt. Petersburg, Florida

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). St. Petersburg, Florida: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaSt. Petersburg, Florida
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 m134 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)16 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaSt. Petersburg, Florida
City population93,076258,308
People per km²4,270725
Museums within 10 km1913
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 St. Petersburg, Florida 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.