VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Buenos Aires 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 Buenos Aires for

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

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Buenos Aires 7, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, Santa Marta 44: Buenos Aires leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Santa Marta 34: Buenos Aires leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Santa Marta 50: Buenos Aires leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Santa Marta 38: Buenos Aires leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Santa Marta 40: Buenos Aires leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Santa Marta 38: Buenos Aires leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, Santa Marta 27: Buenos Aires leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Santa Marta 17: Buenos Aires leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, Santa Marta 30: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Buenos Aires and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Buenos Aires
Best match
57match

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

Santa Marta
46match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 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
Buenos AiresSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresSanta Marta
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5
Emergency number117 or 911123
Elevation25 m8 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresSanta Marta
City population3,121,707505,915
People per km²15,3551,723
Museums within 10 km763
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Buenos Aires 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). 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.