VacationSelector
The Palais des Papes and the cathedral, Avignon
AvignonThe Palais des Papes and the cathedral
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: Avignon by BlueBreezeWiki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Avignon or Santa Barbara?

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 Avignon for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Barbara for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Barbara’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. Avignon 22, Santa Barbara 60: Santa Barbara leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Avignon 57, Santa Barbara 62: Santa Barbara leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Avignon 69, Santa Barbara 48: Avignon leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Avignon 30, Santa Barbara 34: Santa Barbara leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Avignon 70, Santa Barbara 80: Santa Barbara leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Avignon 92, Santa Barbara 55: Avignon leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Avignon 45, Santa Barbara 64: Santa Barbara leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Avignon 62, Santa Barbara 46: Avignon leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Avignon 38, Santa Barbara 45: Santa Barbara leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Avignon 44, Santa Barbara 15: Avignon leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Avignon 68, Santa Barbara 50: Avignon leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Avignon 35, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Avignon and Santa Barbara.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Avignon
53match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
51match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Avignon in July

32 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
24 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AvignonSanta Barbara

Where the figures come from

Avignon 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.

Avignon's sunshine is measured 65 km from the centre, at Marseille / Marignane.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Avignon: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Avignon / Morières-lès-Avignon (8.6 km from centre). Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAvignonSanta Barbara
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation10 m15 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)65 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAvignonSanta Barbara
City population92,18888,665
People per km²1,420816
Museums within 10 km1110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Avignon or Santa Barbara 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.