VacationSelector
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

Photos: Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Vancouver by Xicotencatl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santa Fe or Vancouver?

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
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Vancouver for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Santa Fe 62, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Fe 66, Vancouver 42: Santa Fe leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Santa Fe 22, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Fe 80, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Santa Fe 70, Vancouver 45: Santa Fe leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Santa Fe 45, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Santa Fe 40, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Fe 62, Vancouver 55: Santa Fe leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Santa Fe 30, Vancouver 27: Santa Fe leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Fe 55, Vancouver 52: Santa Fe leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Fe 55, Vancouver 50: Santa Fe leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Fe and Vancouver.

Your match

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

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Vancouver
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches 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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santa FeVancouver

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). Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta FeVancouver
Official language-French, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,134 m2 m
Main airportSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta FeVancouver
City population87,505662,248
People per km²6455,759
Museums within 10 km1026
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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