VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Monica or Steamboat Springs?

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
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Santa Monica leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Steamboat Springs 30: Santa Monica leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Steamboat Springs 14: Santa Monica leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Steamboat Springs 20: Santa Monica leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Steamboat Springs 12: Santa Monica leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Steamboat Springs 62: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Steamboat Springs 46: Santa Monica leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Steamboat Springs 22: Santa Monica leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Steamboat Springs 17: Steamboat Springs leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Steamboat Springs 28: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

Santa Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaSteamboat Springs

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaSteamboat Springs
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation32 m2,052 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaSteamboat Springs
City population93,07613,224
People per km²4,270503
Museums within 10 km190
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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