VacationSelector
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Kathmandu 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 Kathmandu for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • getting around

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. Kathmandu 4, Santa Fe 5: Santa Fe leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Kathmandu 55, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu 82, Santa Fe 66: Kathmandu leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Kathmandu 36, Santa Fe 22: Kathmandu leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu 70, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Kathmandu 56, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Kathmandu 20, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Kathmandu 25, Santa Fe 40: Santa Fe leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Kathmandu 55, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Kathmandu 97, Santa Fe 30: Kathmandu leads by 67 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kathmandu 28, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu 45, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Kathmandu
48match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Santa Fe in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KathmanduSanta 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. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduSanta Fe
Official languageNepali-
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101911
Elevation1,300 m2,134 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduSanta Fe
City population845,76787,505
People per km²17,121645
Museums within 10 km910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.