VacationSelector
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Portland 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 Portland for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • beaches

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • day trips

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. Portland 20, Santa Fe 5: Portland leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Portland 68, Santa Fe 62: Portland leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Portland 38, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Portland 52, Santa Fe 22: Portland leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Portland 84, Santa Fe 80: Portland leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Portland 58, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Portland 55, Santa Fe 45: Portland leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Portland 62, Santa Fe 40: Portland leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Portland 52, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Portland 38, Santa Fe 30: Portland leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Portland and Santa Fe are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. Portland 42, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Portland and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
15 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PortlandSanta 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. Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortlandSanta Fe
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation152 m2,134 m
Main airportPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortlandSanta Fe
City population652,50387,505
People per km²1,736645
Museums within 10 km1710
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 Portland 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.