VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • beaches
  • families
  • prices

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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. Paphos 76, Santa Fe 5: Paphos leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Santa Fe 22: Paphos leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Santa Fe 45: Paphos leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Paphos and Santa Fe are level on 40.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Santa Fe 30: Paphos leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos 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

Paphos
50match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on shopping 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.

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
27 °Csea
14 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosSanta Fe

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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.

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. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosSanta Fe
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation72 m2,134 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosSanta Fe
City population35,96187,505
People per km²1,987645
Museums within 10 km410
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

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