How far is Santa Monica from Malibu? Here's the quick answer if you make this quick drive without any stops. Of course, traffic is going to make a big difference so make sure you check that before leaving.
Nonstop drive: 22 miles or 35 km
Driving time: 40 minutes
Even on a short drive, it might be more interesting to stop along the way and explore the local area. You can scroll down to see the calculation if you drive with stops.
Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Malibu, California and Santa Monica, California. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest distance is actually the "great circle" distance, or "as the crow flies" which is calculated using an iterative Vincenty formula.
Flight distance: 17 miles or 27 km
Flight time: 32 minutes
The straight line flight distance is 5 miles less than driving on roads, which means the driving distance is roughly 1.3x of the flight distance.
Your plane flies much faster than a car, so the flight time is about 1/1th of the time it would take to drive.
This is a relatively short flight in a private plane, but you might be planning to book a commercial flight. In that case, your travel time would really need to include how many minutes to get to your local airport, wait for security, board and taxi on the runway, land at the other airport, and get to your destination.
Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Santa Monica, and you want to stop on the way to explore. If it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting places along the way, or maybe eat at a great restaurant. That's what Trippy is perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.
Road trip: 1 day of driving
With the full itinerary planned out, we can estimate your total travel time for this trip.
Travel time: 41 minutes on the road
Itinerary
Start in Malibu.
Drive for about 15 minutes, then stop at Nobu Malibu and stay for about 1 hour.
Next, drive for another 14 minutes then stop at Getty Villa and stay for 1 hour.
Drive for 11 minutes then stop at Santa Monica Pier and stay for 1 hour.
Finally, drive for about 5 minutes and arrive in Santa Monica.
To see all the details on this itinerary, including recommended restaurants, hotels, and things to do along the way, check out the full road trip planner:
Trippy has a ton of information that can help you plan your trip to Santa Monica, California. Start by reading the Trippy page on where to stay in Santa Monica. If you're looking for a place to stay, you might want to check out Shutters On the Beach. A great place to eat might be Gjelina. Trippy members can suggest things to do in Santa Monica like Santa Monica Pier. Check out some of the questions people have asked about Santa Monica like Drinks in SM?. Click the button below to explore Santa Monica in detail.
The distance is the same either way if you're flying a straight line (or driving the same roads back and forth). But for a real trip, there can be plenty of differences so go ahead and check the reverse directions to get the distance from Santa Monica to Malibu, or go to the main page to calculate the distance between cities.
If you happen to know Malibu, don't forget to help other travelers and answer some questions about Malibu!