VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Santa Monica or York?

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
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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

Choose York for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Santa Monica leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Santa Monica 60, York 42: Santa Monica leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Monica 35, York 70: York leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Santa Monica 38, York 36: Santa Monica leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Monica 72, York 62: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Santa Monica 64, York 80: York leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Santa Monica 70, York 60: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Santa Monica 52, York 72: York leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Monica 56, York 46: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Santa Monica 14, York 38: York leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Monica and York are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Monica 45, York 34: Santa Monica leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Monica and York.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

York
49match

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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MonicaYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MonicaYork
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation32 m25 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MonicaYork
City population93,076208,400
People per km²4,270766
Museums within 10 km1924
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 York 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.