VacationSelector
Rozenhoedkaai and the Belfry, Bruges
BrugesRozenhoedkaai and the Belfry
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

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

Bruges 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 Bruges for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • 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. Bruges 28, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Bruges 56, Santa Marta 44: Bruges leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Bruges 75, Santa Marta 34: Bruges leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Bruges 27, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bruges 40, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Bruges 85, Santa Marta 38: Bruges leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Bruges 54, Santa Marta 40: Bruges leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Bruges 78, Santa Marta 38: Bruges leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Bruges 45, Santa Marta 27: Bruges leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Bruges 36, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bruges 40, Santa Marta 17: Bruges leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bruges 40, Santa Marta 30: Bruges leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bruges and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Bruges
Best match
50match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Bruges in July

21 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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
BrugesSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Bruges 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.

Bruges's sunshine is measured 37 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bruges: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zeebrugge / Zeemanshaard (15.8 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrugesSanta Marta
Official languageFrench, German, DutchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation2 m8 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)94 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrugesSanta Marta
City population118,509505,915
People per km²8401,723
Museums within 10 km383
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Bruges 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). 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. 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.