VacationSelector
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Positano 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 Positano for

  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • culture and sights
  • 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. Positano 77, Santa Fe 5: Positano leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Positano 40, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Positano 22, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Positano and Santa Fe are level on 22.
Nature & outdoors. Positano and Santa Fe are level on 80.
Day trips. Positano 88, Santa Fe 70: Positano leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Positano 28, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Positano 35, Santa Fe 40: Santa Fe leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Positano 45, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Positano 10, Santa Fe 30: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Positano 15, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Positano 45, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Positano
42match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °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
PositanoSanta Fe

Where the figures come from

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano 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.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

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. Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePositanoSanta Fe
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation142 m2,134 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePositanoSanta Fe
City population3,72987,505
People per km²429645
Museums within 10 km1010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
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 Positano 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.