VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Manila 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 Manila for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • wellness

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. Manila 12, Santa Fe 5: Manila leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, Santa Fe 62: Manila leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, Santa Fe 22: Manila leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila 40, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Manila 42, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Manila 42, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Manila 26, Santa Fe 40: Santa Fe leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, Santa Fe 30: Manila leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila 40, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manila 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

Manila
48match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
29 °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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaSanta 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. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManilaSanta Fe
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation9 m2,134 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureManilaSanta Fe
City population1,902,59087,505
People per km²76,104645
Museums within 10 km2710
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Manila 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.