VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Quito 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 Quito for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Quito and Santa Fe are level on 5.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Santa Fe 66: Quito leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Santa Fe 22: Quito leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Santa Fe 80: Quito leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Santa Fe 40: Quito leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Santa Fe 30: Quito leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito 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

Quito
50match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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.

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoSanta Fe

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoSanta Fe
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua-
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,850 m2,134 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoSanta Fe
City population1,763,27587,505
People per km²4,735645
Museums within 10 km1610
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

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