VacationSelector
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santa Fe or Windhoek?

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 Windhoek for

  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Santa Fe leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Santa Fe 62, Windhoek 36: Santa Fe leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Fe 66, Windhoek 30: Santa Fe leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Santa Fe 22, Windhoek 25: Windhoek leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Fe 80, Windhoek 52: Santa Fe leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Santa Fe 70, Windhoek 14: Santa Fe leads by 56 points.
Good for families. Santa Fe 45, Windhoek 30: Santa Fe leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Santa Fe 40, Windhoek 22: Santa Fe leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Fe 62, Windhoek 30: Santa Fe leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Santa Fe 30, Windhoek 62: Windhoek leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Fe 55, Windhoek 18: Santa Fe leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Fe 55, Windhoek 30: Santa Fe leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Fe and Windhoek.

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.

Windhoek
29match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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
14 hdaylight a day

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Santa FeWindhoek

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). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta FeWindhoek
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,134 m1,650 m
Main airportSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta FeWindhoek
City population87,505486,169
People per km²64595
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 Windhoek 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.