VacationSelector
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santiago or Steamboat Springs?

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 Santiago for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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. Santiago 12, Steamboat Springs 7: Santiago leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Santiago 60, Steamboat Springs 30: Santiago leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago 52, Steamboat Springs 14: Santiago leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Santiago 60, Steamboat Springs 20: Santiago leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago 83, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Santiago 70, Steamboat Springs 12: Santiago leads by 58 points.
Good for families. Santiago 57, Steamboat Springs 62: Steamboat Springs leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Santiago 68, Steamboat Springs 46: Santiago leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago 52, Steamboat Springs 22: Santiago leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Santiago 58, Steamboat Springs 17: Santiago leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago 55, Steamboat Springs 28: Santiago leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago 37, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 hdaylight a day

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
SantiagoSteamboat Springs

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs 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. Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoSteamboat Springs
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132911
Elevation575 m2,052 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoSteamboat Springs
City population6,257,51613,224
People per km²7,468503
Museums within 10 km540
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 Santiago or Steamboat Springs 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.