VacationSelector
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon
LyonThe Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Lyon by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Lyon 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 Lyon for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • 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. Lyon 12, Santa Fe 5: Lyon leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Lyon 84, Santa Fe 62: Lyon leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Lyon 77, Santa Fe 66: Lyon leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Lyon 58, Santa Fe 22: Lyon leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lyon 64, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Lyon 77, Santa Fe 70: Lyon leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Lyon 62, Santa Fe 45: Lyon leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Lyon 77, Santa Fe 40: Lyon leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Lyon 58, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Lyon 42, Santa Fe 30: Lyon leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lyon 68, Santa Fe 55: Lyon leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lyon 40, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lyon
Best match
60match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Lyon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
15 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LyonSanta 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. Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLyonSanta Fe
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation160 m2,134 m
Main airportLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre141 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLyonSanta Fe
City population519,12787,505
People per km²10,838645
Museums within 10 km4310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lyon 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.