VacationSelector
A dhow below the towers of West Bay, Doha
DohaA dhow below the towers of West Bay
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Doha by Gregory Hawken Kramer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Doha 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 Doha for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • families

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • day trips

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. Doha 45, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Doha 55, Santa Marta 44: Doha leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Doha 55, Santa Marta 34: Doha leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Doha 20, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Doha 7, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 77 points.
Day trips. Doha 5, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Doha 60, Santa Marta 40: Doha leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Doha 45, Santa Marta 38: Doha leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Doha 60, Santa Marta 27: Doha leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Doha 38, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Doha 30, Santa Marta 17: Doha leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Doha 38, Santa Marta 30: Doha leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Doha
38match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
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.

Doha in July

43 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
33 °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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
DohaSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Doha: 1991-2020 normals, Doha International Airport (5.5 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDohaSanta Marta
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyQatari Rial (QAR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5
Emergency number999123
Elevation0 m8 m
Main airportHamad International Airport (DOH)8 km from centre195 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureDohaSanta Marta
City population1,186,023505,915
People per km²8,9851,723
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 Doha 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.