VacationSelector
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Reykjavik 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 Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Barbara for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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. Reykjavik 12, Santa Barbara 60: Santa Barbara leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Reykjavik 42, Santa Barbara 62: Santa Barbara leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Reykjavik 25, Santa Barbara 48: Santa Barbara leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Reykjavik 45, Santa Barbara 34: Reykjavik leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Reykjavik 92, Santa Barbara 80: Reykjavik leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Reykjavik 35, Santa Barbara 55: Santa Barbara leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Reykjavik 55, Santa Barbara 64: Santa Barbara leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Reykjavik 55, Santa Barbara 46: Reykjavik leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Reykjavik 25, Santa Barbara 45: Santa Barbara leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Reykjavik 6, Santa Barbara 15: Santa Barbara leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Reykjavik 45, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Reykjavik 88, Santa Barbara 50: Reykjavik leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Reykjavik and Santa Barbara.

Your match

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

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
Best match
51match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
ReykjavikSanta Barbara

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre). Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureReykjavikSanta Barbara
Official languageIcelandic-
CurrencyIceland Krona (ISK)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTCUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation8 m15 m
Main airportKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureReykjavikSanta Barbara
City population138,77288,665
People per km²569816
Museums within 10 km2310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Reykjavik 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.