VacationSelector
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art
The Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Fe or Zurich?

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

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Zurich for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Zurich’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, Zurich 45: Zurich leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Santa Fe 62, Zurich 53: Santa Fe leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Fe 66, Zurich 58: Santa Fe leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Santa Fe 22, Zurich 62: Zurich leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Fe and Zurich are level on 80.
Day trips. Santa Fe 70, Zurich 84: Zurich leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Santa Fe 45, Zurich 76: Zurich leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Santa Fe 40, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Fe 62, Zurich 66: Zurich leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Santa Fe 30, Zurich 3: Santa Fe leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Fe 55, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Fe 55, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Fe and Zurich.

Your match

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

Santa Fe
49match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Zurich
Best match
63match

Wins on getting around and beaches 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

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Santa FeZurich

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). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta FeZurich
Official language-French, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,134 m408 m
Main airportSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta FeZurich
City population87,505440,935
People per km²6455,016
Museums within 10 km1063
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Fe or Zurich 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.