VacationSelector
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Florence 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 Florence for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Florence 14, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Florence 74, Santa Marta 44: Florence leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Florence 94, Santa Marta 34: Florence leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Florence 42, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florence 58, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Florence 98, Santa Marta 38: Florence leads by 60 points.
Good for families. Florence 45, Santa Marta 40: Florence leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Florence 78, Santa Marta 38: Florence leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Florence 72, Santa Marta 27: Florence leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Florence 35, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florence 58, Santa Marta 17: Florence leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florence 42, Santa Marta 30: Florence leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Florence
Best match
59match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on beaches 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.

Florence in July

32 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
37 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
FlorenceSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Florence 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.

Florence's sunshine is measured 71 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorenceSanta Marta
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation50 m8 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorenceSanta Marta
City population360,930505,915
People per km²3,5281,723
Museums within 10 km1413
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 Florence 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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. 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.