VacationSelector
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Salvador 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 Salvador for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Santa Fe for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • shopping

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. Salvador 84, Santa Fe 5: Salvador leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Salvador 66, Santa Fe 62: Salvador leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Salvador 74, Santa Fe 66: Salvador leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Salvador 70, Santa Fe 22: Salvador leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Salvador 52, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Salvador 56, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Salvador 42, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Salvador 42, Santa Fe 40: Salvador leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Salvador 42, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Salvador 70, Santa Fe 30: Salvador leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Salvador 63, Santa Fe 55: Salvador leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Salvador 32, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Salvador and Santa Fe.

Your match

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

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
SalvadorSanta 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. Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSalvadorSanta Fe
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCN60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation8 m2,134 m
Main airportDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSalvadorSanta Fe
City population2,417,67887,505
People per km²3,489645
Museums within 10 km4910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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