VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

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

Huatulco 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 Huatulco for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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. Huatulco 86, Santa Marta 70: Huatulco leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco and Santa Marta are level on 44.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Santa Marta 38: Huatulco leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Santa Marta 40: Huatulco leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Santa Marta 17: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Santa Marta 30: Huatulco leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Huatulco
43match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
46match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Huatulco in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
156 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Huatulco's temperatures are measured 42 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Huatulco's station stands 177 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Huatulco 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. Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoSanta Marta
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation220 m8 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoSanta Marta
City population7,409505,915
People per km²-1,723
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Huatulco 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.