VacationSelector
Hobart below kunanyi/Mount Wellington, Hobart
HobartHobart below kunanyi/Mount Wellington
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: Hobart by Gary Houston, CC0; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Hobart 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 Hobart for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Santa Barbara for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

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. Hobart 30, Santa Barbara 60: Santa Barbara leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Hobart 60, Santa Barbara 62: Santa Barbara leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Hobart 56, Santa Barbara 48: Hobart leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Hobart 30, Santa Barbara 34: Santa Barbara leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hobart 85, Santa Barbara 80: Hobart leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Hobart 60, Santa Barbara 55: Hobart leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Hobart 56, Santa Barbara 64: Santa Barbara leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Hobart 45, Santa Barbara 46: Santa Barbara leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Hobart 38, Santa Barbara 45: Santa Barbara leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Hobart 35, Santa Barbara 15: Hobart leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hobart 45, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hobart 40, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hobart and Santa Barbara.

Your match

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

Hobart
48match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
Best match
51match

Wins on beaches 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.

Hobart in July

13 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
9 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
HobartSanta Barbara

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hobart: 1991-2020 normals, Hobart (2.3 km from centre). Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHobartSanta Barbara
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation54 m15 m
Main airportHobart International Airport (HBA)17 km from centre9 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHobartSanta Barbara
City population197,45188,665
People per km²116816
Museums within 10 km810
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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