VacationSelector
The Teatro Amazonas, Manaus
ManausThe Teatro Amazonas
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: Manaus by Jardelsliumba, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Manaus 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 Manaus for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Santa Barbara for

  • day trips
  • 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. Manaus 38, Santa Barbara 60: Santa Barbara leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Manaus 56, Santa Barbara 62: Santa Barbara leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Manaus 46, Santa Barbara 48: Santa Barbara leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Manaus 42, Santa Barbara 34: Manaus leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manaus 86, Santa Barbara 80: Manaus leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Manaus 12, Santa Barbara 55: Santa Barbara leads by 43 points.
Good for families. Manaus 35, Santa Barbara 64: Santa Barbara leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Manaus 27, Santa Barbara 46: Santa Barbara leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Manaus 36, Santa Barbara 45: Santa Barbara leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Manaus 63, Santa Barbara 15: Manaus leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manaus 54, Santa Barbara 50: Manaus leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manaus 20, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manaus and Santa Barbara.

Your match

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

Manaus
43match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
Best match
51match

Wins on day trips 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.

Manaus in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 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°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ManausSanta Barbara

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Manaus: 1991-2020 normals, Manaus (1.7 km from centre). Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManausSanta Barbara
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCN60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation92 m15 m
Main airportEduardo Gomes International Airport (MAO)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureManausSanta Barbara
City population2,303,73288,665
People per km²202816
Museums within 10 km1310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Manaus 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.