VacationSelector
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Osaka 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 Osaka for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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. Osaka 34, Santa Fe 5: Osaka leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Osaka 91, Santa Fe 62: Osaka leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Osaka 63, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Osaka 80, Santa Fe 22: Osaka leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Osaka 58, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Osaka 97, Santa Fe 70: Osaka leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Osaka 88, Santa Fe 45: Osaka leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Osaka 90, Santa Fe 40: Osaka leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Osaka 80, Santa Fe 62: Osaka leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Osaka 60, Santa Fe 30: Osaka leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Osaka 66, Santa Fe 55: Osaka leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Osaka 66, Santa Fe 55: Osaka leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Osaka and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
OsakaSanta 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. Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsakaSanta Fe
Official languageJapanese-
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation20 m2,134 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsakaSanta Fe
City population2,751,86287,505
People per km²12,340645
Museums within 10 km4410
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

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