VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Baku 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 Baku for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • 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. Baku 40, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, Santa Marta 44: Baku leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, Santa Marta 34: Baku leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 54 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Santa Marta 38: Baku leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Santa Marta 40: Baku leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Santa Marta 38: Baku leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, Santa Marta 27: Baku leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, Santa Marta 17: Baku leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku and Santa Marta are level on 30.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku 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

Baku
48match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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
BakuSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuSanta Marta
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-5
Emergency number102 or 112123
Elevation-28 m8 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuSanta Marta
City population2,300,500505,915
People per km²1,0751,723
Museums within 10 km503
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku 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). 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. 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.