VacationSelector
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden
Palms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach
West Palm BeachPalms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue

Photos: Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santa Barbara or West Palm Beach?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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

Choose West Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm Beach’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, West Palm Beach 80: West Palm Beach leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Santa Barbara 62, West Palm Beach 52: Santa Barbara leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Barbara 48, West Palm Beach 42: Santa Barbara leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Santa Barbara 34, West Palm Beach 36: West Palm Beach leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Barbara 80, West Palm Beach 58: Santa Barbara leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Santa Barbara and West Palm Beach are level on 55.
Good for families. Santa Barbara 64, West Palm Beach 66: West Palm Beach leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Santa Barbara 46, West Palm Beach 38: Santa Barbara leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Barbara 45, West Palm Beach 64: West Palm Beach leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Santa Barbara 15, West Palm Beach 23: West Palm Beach leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Barbara 50, West Palm Beach 47: Santa Barbara leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Barbara 50, West Palm Beach 44: Santa Barbara leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Barbara and West Palm Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Santa Barbara
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and food and drink with your weighting.

West Palm Beach
50match

Wins on beaches 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.

Santa Barbara in July

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

West Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santa BarbaraWest Palm Beach

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). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta BarbaraWest Palm Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation15 m6 m
Main airportSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta BarbaraWest Palm Beach
City population88,665117,415
People per km²816786
Museums within 10 km104
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Barbara or West Palm Beach 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.