VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santa Monica or Windhoek?

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
  • families

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

Choose Windhoek for

  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Santa Monica leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, Windhoek 36: Santa Monica leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, Windhoek 30: Santa Monica leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, Windhoek 25: Santa Monica leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, Windhoek 52: Santa Monica leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, Windhoek 14: Santa Monica leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, Windhoek 30: Santa Monica leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, Windhoek 22: Santa Monica leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, Windhoek 30: Santa Monica leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, Windhoek 62: Windhoek leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica 38, Windhoek 18: Santa Monica leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, Windhoek 30: Santa Monica leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and Windhoek.

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.

Windhoek
29match

Wins on 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaWindhoek

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaWindhoek
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation32 m1,650 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaWindhoek
City population93,076486,169
People per km²4,27095
Museums within 10 km195
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 Windhoek 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.