VacationSelector
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Santa Fe or Washington DC?

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

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Washington DC leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Santa Fe 62, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Fe 66, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Santa Fe 22, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Fe 80, Washington DC 64: Santa Fe leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Santa Fe 70, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Santa Fe 45, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Santa Fe 40, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Fe 62, Washington DC 52: Santa Fe leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Santa Fe 30, Washington DC 28: Santa Fe leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Fe 55, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Fe 55, Washington DC 26: Santa Fe leads by 29 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Fe and Washington DC.

Your match

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

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Washington DC
Best match
56match

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 seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Santa FeWashington DC

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta FeWashington DC
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,134 m72 m
Main airportSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta FeWashington DC
City population87,505689,545
People per km²6453,896
Museums within 10 km1098
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

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