VacationSelector
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Gold Coast 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 Gold Coast for

  • families
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Gold Coast 92, Santa Marta 70: Gold Coast leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Gold Coast 47, Santa Marta 44: Gold Coast leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Gold Coast 15, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Gold Coast 55, Santa Marta 50: Gold Coast leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gold Coast 82, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Gold Coast 52, Santa Marta 38: Gold Coast leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Gold Coast 89, Santa Marta 40: Gold Coast leads by 49 points.
Getting around. Gold Coast 45, Santa Marta 38: Gold Coast leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Gold Coast 40, Santa Marta 27: Gold Coast leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Gold Coast 35, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gold Coast 30, Santa Marta 17: Gold Coast leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gold Coast 42, Santa Marta 30: Gold Coast leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Gold Coast
Best match
52match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Gold Coast in July

22 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
11 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
Gold CoastSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGold CoastSanta Marta
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-5
Emergency number000123
Elevation12 m8 m
Main airportGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureGold CoastSanta Marta
City population607,665505,915
People per km²4331,723
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Gold Coast 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.