VacationSelector
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

Santa Barbara or Seattle?

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 Santa Barbara for

  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Seattle for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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. Santa Barbara 60, Seattle 30: Santa Barbara leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Santa Barbara 62, Seattle 66: Seattle leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Barbara 48, Seattle 50: Seattle leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Santa Barbara 34, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Barbara 80, Seattle 87: Seattle leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Santa Barbara and Seattle are level on 55.
Good for families. Santa Barbara and Seattle are level on 64.
Getting around. Santa Barbara 46, Seattle 60: Seattle leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Barbara 45, Seattle 52: Seattle leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Santa Barbara 15, Seattle 22: Seattle leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Barbara 50, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Barbara 50, Seattle 40: Santa Barbara leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Barbara and Seattle.

Your match

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

Santa Barbara
51match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Seattle
Best match
54match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Santa BarbaraSeattle

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta BarbaraSeattle
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation15 m40 m
Main airportSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta BarbaraSeattle
City population88,665737,015
People per km²8161,996
Museums within 10 km1027
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Barbara or Seattle 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.