VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong for

  • shopping
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Hong Kong’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. Hong Kong 50, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, Santa Marta 44: Hong Kong leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, Santa Marta 34: Hong Kong leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, Santa Marta 50: Hong Kong leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, Santa Marta 38: Hong Kong leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, Santa Marta 40: Hong Kong leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, Santa Marta 38: Hong Kong leads by 59 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, Santa Marta 27: Hong Kong leads by 61 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, Santa Marta 17: Hong Kong leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, Santa Marta 30: Hong Kong leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hong Kong and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on shopping 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.

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHong KongSanta Marta
Official languageStandard ChineseSpanish
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency number999123
Elevation7 m8 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongSanta Marta
City population7,413,070505,915
People per km²-1,723
Museums within 10 km393
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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