VacationSelector
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Reykjavik 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 Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • 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. Reykjavik 12, Santa Fe 5: Reykjavik leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Reykjavik 42, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Reykjavik 25, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Reykjavik 45, Santa Fe 22: Reykjavik leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Reykjavik 92, Santa Fe 80: Reykjavik leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Reykjavik 35, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Reykjavik 55, Santa Fe 45: Reykjavik leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Reykjavik 55, Santa Fe 40: Reykjavik leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Reykjavik 25, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Reykjavik 6, Santa Fe 30: Santa Fe leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Reykjavik 45, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Reykjavik 88, Santa Fe 55: Reykjavik leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Reykjavik and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
ReykjavikSanta 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. Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureReykjavikSanta Fe
Official languageIcelandic-
CurrencyIceland Krona (ISK)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTCUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation8 m2,134 m
Main airportKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureReykjavikSanta Fe
City population138,77287,505
People per km²569645
Museums within 10 km2310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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