VacationSelector
The Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel, Amman
AmmanThe Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Amman by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Amman 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 Amman for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Amman 22, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Amman 62, Santa Marta 44: Amman leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Amman 54, Santa Marta 34: Amman leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Amman 32, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amman 45, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Amman 80, Santa Marta 38: Amman leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Amman 38, Santa Marta 40: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Amman 30, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Amman 42, Santa Marta 27: Amman leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Amman 58, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amman 27, Santa Marta 17: Amman leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amman 55, Santa Marta 30: Amman leads by 25 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Amman
45match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on beaches 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.

Amman in July

33 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AmmanSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Amman 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.

Amman's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Mafraq.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Amman: 1994-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Amman Airport (6 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmmanSanta Marta
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation776 m8 m
Main airportQueen Alia International Airport (AMM)26 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmmanSanta Marta
City population4,007,526505,915
People per km²2,3851,723
Museums within 10 km83
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amman 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.