VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Santa Marta 44: Antigua Guatemala leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Santa Marta 34: Antigua Guatemala leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Santa Marta 38: Antigua Guatemala leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Santa Marta 40: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Santa Marta 38: Antigua Guatemala leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Santa Marta 27: Antigua Guatemala leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Santa Marta 17: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Santa Marta 30: Antigua Guatemala leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala 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

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on beaches 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.

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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
Antigua GuatemalaSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSanta Marta
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123123
Elevation1,582 m8 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSanta Marta
City population59,091505,915
People per km²-1,723
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Antigua Guatemala 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.