VacationSelector
Elizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth, Perth
PerthElizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: Perth by Samuel Wiki, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Perth or Santa Barbara?

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 Perth for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Santa Barbara for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Barbara’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. Perth 86, Santa Barbara 60: Perth leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Perth 58, Santa Barbara 62: Santa Barbara leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Perth 42, Santa Barbara 48: Santa Barbara leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Perth 42, Santa Barbara 34: Perth leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Perth 72, Santa Barbara 80: Santa Barbara leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Perth 48, Santa Barbara 55: Santa Barbara leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Perth 74, Santa Barbara 64: Perth leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Perth 55, Santa Barbara 46: Perth leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Perth 44, Santa Barbara 45: Santa Barbara leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Perth 28, Santa Barbara 15: Perth leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Perth and Santa Barbara are level on 50.
Wellness & relaxation. Perth 38, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Perth
53match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
51match

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.

Perth in July

19 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PerthSanta Barbara

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Perth: 1991-2020 normals, Perth (7.3 km from centre). Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePerthSanta Barbara
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation2 m15 m
Main airportPerth International Airport (PER)10 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePerthSanta Barbara
City population2,141,83488,665
People per km²334816
Museums within 10 km1510
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Perth or Santa Barbara 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.