VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Fe for

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

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. Colombo 55, Santa Fe 5: Colombo leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Santa Fe 62: Colombo leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Santa Fe 22: Colombo leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 48 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Santa Fe 40: Santa Fe leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Santa Fe 30: Colombo leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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
ColomboSanta 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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboSanta Fe
Official languageTamil, Sinhala-
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m2,134 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboSanta Fe
City population647,55787,505
People per km²17,361645
Museums within 10 km1010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.