VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • 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. Ghent 25, Santa Fe 5: Ghent leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Ghent and Santa Fe are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Santa Fe 66: Ghent leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Santa Fe 22: Ghent leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Santa Fe 70: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Santa Fe 45: Ghent leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Santa Fe 40: Ghent leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Santa Fe 30: Ghent leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Santa Fe 55: Ghent leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and nightlife 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.

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
GhentSanta Fe

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

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. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentSanta Fe
Official languageFrench, German, Dutch-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation12 m2,134 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentSanta Fe
City population272,65787,505
People per km²1,728645
Museums within 10 km3010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Santa Fe somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. 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.