VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • 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. Galway 28, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Santa Marta 44: Galway leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Galway and Santa Marta are level on 50.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Santa Marta 38: Galway leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Santa Marta 40: Galway leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Santa Marta 38: Galway leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Santa Marta 27: Galway leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Santa Marta 17: Galway leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Santa Marta 30: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Galway
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Marta
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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwaySanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwaySanta Marta
Official languageEnglish, IrishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation25 m8 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwaySanta Marta
City population83,456505,915
People per km²1,5631,723
Museums within 10 km43
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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