VacationSelector
The wide beach and its hotels in morning light, Daytona Beach
Daytona BeachThe wide beach and its hotels in morning light
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Daytona Beach by Han Zheng, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Daytona Beach 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 Daytona Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Daytona Beach 80, Santa Marta 70: Daytona Beach leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Daytona Beach 36, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Daytona Beach 30, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Daytona Beach 40, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Daytona Beach 56, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Daytona Beach 66, Santa Marta 38: Daytona Beach leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Daytona Beach 60, Santa Marta 40: Daytona Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Daytona Beach 18, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Daytona Beach and Santa Marta are level on 27.
Affordability. Daytona Beach 46, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Daytona Beach 30, Santa Marta 17: Daytona Beach leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Daytona Beach and Santa Marta are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Daytona Beach and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Daytona Beach
43match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
46match

Wins on prices 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.

Daytona Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Daytona BeachSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Daytona Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Daytona Beach / Mansfield Mobile Home Park (4.9 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDaytona BeachSanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation4 m8 m
Main airportDaytona Beach International Airport (DAB)5 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureDaytona BeachSanta Marta
City population72,647505,915
People per km²4401,723
Museums within 10 km63
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Daytona Beach 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.