VacationSelector
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art
Ushuaia below snow-capped mountains, Ushuaia
UshuaiaUshuaia below snow-capped mountains

Photos: Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Ushuaia by Jan Tang, Pexels License.

Santa Fe or Ushuaia?

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

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Ushuaia for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Ushuaia’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, Ushuaia 3: Santa Fe leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Santa Fe 62, Ushuaia 40: Santa Fe leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Fe 66, Ushuaia 22: Santa Fe leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Santa Fe 22, Ushuaia 18: Santa Fe leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Fe 80, Ushuaia 88: Ushuaia leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Santa Fe 70, Ushuaia 14: Santa Fe leads by 56 points.
Good for families. Santa Fe 45, Ushuaia 40: Santa Fe leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Santa Fe 40, Ushuaia 45: Ushuaia leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Fe 62, Ushuaia 22: Santa Fe leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Santa Fe 30, Ushuaia 42: Ushuaia leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Fe 55, Ushuaia 10: Santa Fe leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Fe 55, Ushuaia 26: Santa Fe leads by 29 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Fe and Ushuaia.

Your match

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

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Ushuaia
31match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors 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
14 hdaylight a day

Ushuaia in July

4 °Cdaytime high
0 °Cnight-time low
36 mmrain in the month
2 hsunshine a day
8 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
Santa FeUshuaia

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). Ushuaia: 1991-2020 normals, Ushuaia Aerodrome (1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta FeUshuaia
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation2,134 m23 m
Main airportSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsUshuaia - Malvinas Argentinas International Airport (USH)4 km from centre9 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta FeUshuaia
City population87,50582,615
People per km²6453,592
Museums within 10 km105
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Fe or Ushuaia 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. 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.