VacationSelector
Palms on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu
HonoluluPalms on Waikiki Beach
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Honolulu by Jess Loiterton, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Honolulu 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 Honolulu for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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. Honolulu 91, Santa Fe 5: Honolulu leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. Honolulu 70, Santa Fe 62: Honolulu leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Honolulu 55, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Honolulu 45, Santa Fe 22: Honolulu leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Honolulu 88, Santa Fe 80: Honolulu leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Honolulu 38, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Honolulu 80, Santa Fe 45: Honolulu leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Honolulu 52, Santa Fe 40: Honolulu leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Honolulu 60, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Honolulu 15, Santa Fe 30: Santa Fe leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Honolulu 40, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Honolulu 50, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Honolulu and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Honolulu
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Honolulu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
13 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
HonoluluSanta 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. Honolulu: 1991-2020 normals, Honolulu International Airport (10.1 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHonoluluSanta Fe
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-10UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation12 m2,134 m
Main airportDaniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)7 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHonoluluSanta Fe
City population350,96487,505
People per km²1,981645
Museums within 10 km1210
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 Honolulu 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.