VacationSelector
Skiers and chairlifts on the slopes in sunshine, Deer Valley
Deer ValleySkiers and chairlifts on the slopes in sunshine
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Deer Valley by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Deer Valley 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 Deer Valley for

  • wellness
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Deer Valley’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. Deer Valley 10, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Deer Valley 38, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Deer Valley 15, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Deer Valley 25, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Deer Valley 90, Santa Marta 84: Deer Valley leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Deer Valley and Santa Marta are level on 38.
Good for families. Deer Valley 60, Santa Marta 40: Deer Valley leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Deer Valley 50, Santa Marta 38: Deer Valley leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Deer Valley 25, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Deer Valley 4, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 76 points.
Live music & performing arts. Deer Valley 30, Santa Marta 17: Deer Valley leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Deer Valley 52, Santa Marta 30: Deer Valley leads by 22 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Deer Valley
36match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
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.

Deer Valley in July

28 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Deer ValleySanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Deer Valley's temperatures are measured 82 km from the centre, at Evanston.

Deer Valley's station stands 297 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Deer Valley 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Deer Valley: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Evanston (81.9 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDeer ValleySanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation2,474 m8 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)45 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureDeer ValleySanta Marta
City population-505,915
People per km²-1,723
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Deer Valley or Santa Marta somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.