VacationSelector
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Huntington Beach 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 Huntington Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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. Huntington Beach and Santa Marta are level on 70.
Food & drink. Huntington Beach 46, Santa Marta 44: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Huntington Beach 14, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Huntington Beach 38, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huntington Beach 58, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Huntington Beach 63, Santa Marta 38: Huntington Beach leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Huntington Beach 82, Santa Marta 40: Huntington Beach leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Huntington Beach 20, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Huntington Beach 42, Santa Marta 27: Huntington Beach leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Huntington Beach 28, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huntington Beach 33, Santa Marta 17: Huntington Beach leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huntington Beach 36, Santa Marta 30: Huntington Beach leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 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
Huntington BeachSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuntington BeachSanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation12 m8 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuntington BeachSanta Marta
City population198,711505,915
People per km²2,4061,723
Museums within 10 km33
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 Huntington Beach 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.