VacationSelector
Haedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea, Busan
BusanHaedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Busan by Andrea De Santis, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Busan or Santa Fe?

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 Busan for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’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. Busan 68, Santa Fe 5: Busan leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Busan 72, Santa Fe 62: Busan leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Busan 52, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Busan 60, Santa Fe 22: Busan leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Busan 74, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Busan 74, Santa Fe 70: Busan leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Busan 70, Santa Fe 45: Busan leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Busan 68, Santa Fe 40: Busan leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Busan 60, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Busan 56, Santa Fe 30: Busan leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Busan 42, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Busan 78, Santa Fe 55: Busan leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Busan and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Busan
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Busan in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
352 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BusanSanta Fe

Where the figures come from

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Busan: 1991-2020 normals, Pusan (9.7 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBusanSanta Fe
Official languageKorean, Korean Sign Language-
CurrencyWon (KRW)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 119, fire 119911
Elevation30 m2,134 m
Main airportGimhae International Airport (PUS)12 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBusanSanta Fe
City population3,453,19887,505
People per km²4,486645
Museums within 10 km710
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Busan or Santa Fe 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.