VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Santa Marta?

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 Acapulco for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • beaches

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Marta’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. Acapulco 80, Santa Marta 70: Acapulco leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Santa Marta 44: Acapulco leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Santa Marta 50: Acapulco leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Santa Marta 40: Acapulco leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Santa Marta 27: Acapulco leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Santa Marta 17: Acapulco leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Santa Marta 30: Acapulco leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Acapulco
44match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Santa Marta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoSanta Marta
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation18 m8 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoSanta Marta
City population658,609505,915
People per km²3501,723
Museums within 10 km33
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Santa Marta 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.