VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Monica or Tulum?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Tulum for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Tulum’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, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Tulum 52: Santa Monica leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Tulum 30: Santa Monica leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Tulum 76: Tulum leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Tulum 68: Tulum leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Tulum 60: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Tulum 25: Santa Monica leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Tulum 35: Santa Monica leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Tulum 30: Tulum leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Tulum 15: Santa Monica leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and Tulum.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tulum
52match

Wins on wellness 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Tulum in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaTulum

Where the figures come from

Tulum has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaTulum
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation32 m5 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre9 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaTulum
City population93,07633,374
People per km²4,270-
Museums within 10 km190
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Monica or Tulum 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.