VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Hiroshima or Santa Barbara?

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 Hiroshima for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Barbara for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Barbara’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. Hiroshima 30, Santa Barbara 60: Santa Barbara leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, Santa Barbara 62: Hiroshima leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, Santa Barbara 48: Hiroshima leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, Santa Barbara 34: Hiroshima leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, Santa Barbara 80: Santa Barbara leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, Santa Barbara 55: Hiroshima leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, Santa Barbara 64: Santa Barbara leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, Santa Barbara 46: Hiroshima leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, Santa Barbara 45: Hiroshima leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, Santa Barbara 15: Hiroshima leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima and Santa Barbara are level on 50.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hiroshima and Santa Barbara.

Your match

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

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
51match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaSanta Barbara

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaSanta Barbara
Official languageJapanese-
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation3 m15 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaSanta Barbara
City population1,198,02188,665
People per km²1,324816
Museums within 10 km1810
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hiroshima or Santa Barbara 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.