VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The skyline reflected in the water, The Hague
The HagueThe skyline reflected in the water

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; The Hague by Bráulio jardim, Pexels License.

Santa Monica or The Hague?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose The Hague for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on The Hague’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, The Hague 38: Santa Monica leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, The Hague 48: Santa Monica leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, The Hague 66: The Hague leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica and The Hague are level on 38.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, The Hague 52: Santa Monica leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, The Hague 86: The Hague leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, The Hague 72: The Hague leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, The Hague 78: The Hague leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, The Hague 55: Santa Monica leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, The Hague 35: The Hague leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, The Hague 58: The Hague leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica and The Hague are level on 45.
0255075100

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

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.

The Hague
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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

The Hague in July

21 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaThe Hague

Where the figures come from

The Hague 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.

The Hague's sunshine is measured 60 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). The Hague: 1991-2020 normals, Valkenburg (13.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaThe Hague
Official language-Dutch
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 m1 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)16 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaThe Hague
City population93,076548,320
People per km²4,2705,589
Museums within 10 km1954
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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