VacationSelector
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Santa Fe or Wellington?

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
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Wellington for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Santa Fe and Wellington are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Santa Fe 66, Wellington 44: Santa Fe leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Santa Fe 22, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Fe 80, Wellington 78: Santa Fe leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Santa Fe 70, Wellington 40: Santa Fe leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Santa Fe 45, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Santa Fe 40, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Fe 62, Wellington 42: Santa Fe leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Santa Fe 30, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Fe 55, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Fe 55, Wellington 30: Santa Fe leads by 25 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Santa FeWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta FeWellington
Official language-English, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation2,134 m0 m
Main airportSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta FeWellington
City population87,505216,200
People per km²645487
Museums within 10 km1012
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 Wellington 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.