VacationSelector
The Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta
AtlantaThe Georgia State Capitol
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Atlanta by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Atlanta 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 Atlanta for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • food and drink

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Atlanta 10, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Atlanta 68, Santa Marta 44: Atlanta leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Atlanta 55, Santa Marta 34: Atlanta leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Atlanta 65, Santa Marta 50: Atlanta leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Atlanta 60, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Atlanta 52, Santa Marta 38: Atlanta leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Atlanta 70, Santa Marta 40: Atlanta leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Atlanta 28, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Atlanta 50, Santa Marta 27: Atlanta leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Atlanta 40, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Atlanta 62, Santa Marta 17: Atlanta leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Atlanta 33, Santa Marta 30: Atlanta leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Atlanta and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Atlanta
Best match
49match

Wins on live music and the arts and families with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Atlanta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
120 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AtlantaSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Atlanta 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. Atlanta: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Atlanta / Carroll Heights (12.5 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAtlantaSanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation225 m8 m
Main airportHartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)14 km from centre238 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureAtlantaSanta Marta
City population498,715505,915
People per km²1,4331,723
Museums within 10 km273
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Atlanta 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). 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. 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.

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.