VacationSelector
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santa Fe or Shanghai?

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 Fe for

  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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 Fe 5, Shanghai 10: Shanghai leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Santa Fe 62, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Fe 66, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Santa Fe 22, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Fe 80, Shanghai 25: Santa Fe leads by 55 points.
Day trips. Santa Fe 70, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Santa Fe 45, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Santa Fe 40, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Fe 62, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Santa Fe 30, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Fe 55, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Fe and Shanghai are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Fe and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santa FeShanghai

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. Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta FeShanghai
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation2,134 m4 m
Main airportSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta FeShanghai
City population87,50524,870,895
People per km²6453,922
Museums within 10 km1045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Fe or Shanghai 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.