VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Santa Monica or Valletta?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Valletta for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Valletta 55: Santa Monica leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Valletta 46: Valletta leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Valletta 56: Santa Monica leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Valletta 58: Santa Monica leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Valletta 62: Valletta leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Valletta 38: Santa Monica leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Valletta 50: Valletta leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Valletta 44: Valletta leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, Valletta 32: Santa Monica leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and Valletta.

Your match

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

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on shopping and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Valletta
Best match
55match

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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaValletta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaValletta
Official language-English, Maltese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation32 m56 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaValletta
City population93,0765,197
People per km²4,2706,496
Museums within 10 km1916
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

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