VacationSelector
Vieux Nice and the Baie des Anges, Nice
NiceVieux Nice and the Baie des Anges
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Nice by Daniel Stockman, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Nice 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 Nice for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Nice 75, Santa Fe 5: Nice leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Nice 66, Santa Fe 62: Nice leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Nice 64, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Nice 47, Santa Fe 22: Nice leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Nice and Santa Fe are level on 80.
Day trips. Nice 87, Santa Fe 70: Nice leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Nice 57, Santa Fe 45: Nice leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Nice 74, Santa Fe 40: Nice leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Nice 55, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Nice 35, Santa Fe 30: Nice leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Nice 45, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Nice 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: Nice and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Nice
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Nice in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
NiceSanta 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. Nice: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (8 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNiceSanta 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
Elevation0 m2,134 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)6 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNiceSanta Fe
City population357,73787,505
People per km²4,975645
Museums within 10 km1710
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

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