VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Luang Prabang 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 Luang Prabang for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • beaches

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • 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. Luang Prabang 14, Santa Fe 5: Luang Prabang leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Santa Fe 22: Santa Fe leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Santa Fe 40: Luang Prabang leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Santa Fe 30: Luang Prabang leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Santa Fe 55: Luang Prabang leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
13 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
Luang PrabangSanta 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. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangSanta Fe
Official languageLao-
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190911
Elevation305 m2,134 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangSanta Fe
City population53,79287,505
People per km²-645
Museums within 10 km010
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 Luang Prabang 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.