VacationSelector
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Destin 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 Destin for

  • families
  • beaches
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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. Destin 86, Santa Marta 70: Destin leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Destin 42, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Destin 14, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Destin 36, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Destin 56, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Destin 44, Santa Marta 38: Destin leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Destin 72, Santa Marta 40: Destin leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Destin 20, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Destin 40, Santa Marta 27: Destin leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Destin 34, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Destin 20, Santa Marta 17: Destin leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Destin 33, Santa Marta 30: Destin leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Destin and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Destin
41match

Wins on families and beaches 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.

Destin in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DestinSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Destin 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. Destin: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Destin (0.8 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDestinSanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation8 m8 m
Main airportDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureDestinSanta Marta
City population13,931505,915
People per km²6361,723
Museums within 10 km13
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Destin 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.