VacationSelector
The pyramids of Giza, Cairo
CairoThe pyramids of Giza
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Cairo by Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cairo 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 Cairo for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • families

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. Cairo 10, Santa Fe 5: Cairo leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Cairo 60, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cairo 96, Santa Fe 66: Cairo leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Cairo 48, Santa Fe 22: Cairo leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairo 30, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Cairo 66, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Cairo 32, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Cairo 35, Santa Fe 40: Santa Fe leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cairo 58, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Cairo 95, Santa Fe 30: Cairo leads by 65 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairo 50, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairo 15, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairo and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cairo
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cairo in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Santa Fe in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
CairoSanta 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. Cairo: 1991-2020 normals, Helwan (21.9 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairoSanta Fe
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180911
Elevation23 m2,134 m
Main airportCairo International Airport (CAI)17 km from centre127 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairoSanta Fe
City population9,801,53687,505
People per km²18,564645
Museums within 10 km4810
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairo 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.