VacationSelector
Wat Pho, Bangkok
BangkokWat Pho
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Bangkok by Lu Zhao, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bangkok 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 Bangkok for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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. Bangkok 12, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Bangkok 95, Santa Marta 44: Bangkok leads by 51 points.
Culture & sights. Bangkok 80, Santa Marta 34: Bangkok leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Bangkok 85, Santa Marta 50: Bangkok leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bangkok 25, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 59 points.
Day trips. Bangkok 72, Santa Marta 38: Bangkok leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Bangkok 50, Santa Marta 40: Bangkok leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bangkok 50, Santa Marta 38: Bangkok leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Bangkok 80, Santa Marta 27: Bangkok leads by 53 points.
Affordability. Bangkok 85, Santa Marta 80: Bangkok leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bangkok 52, Santa Marta 17: Bangkok leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bangkok 75, Santa Marta 30: Bangkok leads by 45 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bangkok and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Bangkok
Best match
63match

Wins on shopping and food and drink 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.

Bangkok in July

34 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
184 mmrain in the month
5 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BangkokSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bangkok: 1991-2020 normals, Bangkok (5.7 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBangkokSanta Marta
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199123
Elevation2 m8 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)26 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBangkokSanta Marta
City population5,676,648505,915
People per km²3,6191,723
Museums within 10 km593
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 Bangkok 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.