VacationSelector
Lower Broadway and its honky-tonks, Nashville
NashvilleLower Broadway and its honky-tonks
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Nashville by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Nashville 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 Nashville for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Nashville 14, Santa Fe 5: Nashville leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Nashville and Santa Fe are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Nashville 50, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Nashville 70, Santa Fe 22: Nashville leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nashville 46, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Nashville 52, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Nashville 55, Santa Fe 45: Nashville leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Nashville 30, Santa Fe 40: Santa Fe leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Nashville 42, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Nashville and Santa Fe are level on 30.
Live music & performing arts. Nashville 82, Santa Fe 55: Nashville leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nashville 20, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 35 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Nashville
46match

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

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Nashville in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
104 mmrain in the month
14 hdaylight a day

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
NashvilleSanta 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. Nashville: 1991-2020 normals, Nashville Airport (9.6 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNashvilleSanta Fe
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation182 m2,134 m
Main airportNashville International Airport (BNA)10 km from centre122 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNashvilleSanta Fe
City population689,44787,505
People per km²506645
Museums within 10 km1210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Nashville 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). 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.