VacationSelector
The 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre, Fort Myers
Fort MyersThe 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Fort Myers by Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Fort Myers 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 Fort Myers for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • shopping

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. Fort Myers 77, Santa Fe 5: Fort Myers leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Fort Myers 40, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Fort Myers 32, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Fort Myers 32, Santa Fe 22: Fort Myers leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fort Myers 63, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Fort Myers 50, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Fort Myers 62, Santa Fe 45: Fort Myers leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Fort Myers 15, Santa Fe 40: Santa Fe leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Fort Myers 38, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Fort Myers 38, Santa Fe 30: Fort Myers leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fort Myers 36, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fort Myers 35, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fort Myers and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Fort Myers
43match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fort Myers in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
220 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Santa Fe in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Fort MyersSanta Fe

Where the figures come from

Fort Myers 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.

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. Fort Myers: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Myers / Page Park (4.5 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFort MyersSanta Fe
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m2,134 m
Main airportSouthwest Florida International Airport (RSW)12 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureFort MyersSanta Fe
City population86,39587,505
People per km²681645
Museums within 10 km310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C10 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fort Myers 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.