VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bergen 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 Bergen for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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. Bergen 20, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, Santa Marta 44: Bergen leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, Santa Marta 34: Bergen leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, Santa Marta 84: Bergen leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Bergen and Santa Marta are level on 38.
Good for families. Bergen 60, Santa Marta 40: Bergen leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Bergen 74, Santa Marta 38: Bergen leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, Santa Marta 27: Bergen leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 68 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, Santa Marta 17: Bergen leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, Santa Marta 30: Bergen leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bergen and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Bergen
46match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on prices 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.

Bergen in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 °Csea
18 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
BergenSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenSanta Marta
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiSpanish
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110123
Elevation5 m8 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenSanta Marta
City population291,189505,915
People per km²3,3391,723
Museums within 10 km313
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bergen 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.