VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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. Interlaken 30, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Santa Marta 84: Interlaken leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Santa Marta 38: Interlaken leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Santa Marta 40: Interlaken leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Santa Marta 38: Interlaken leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 72 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Santa Marta 17: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Santa Marta 30: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
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.

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
InterlakenSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenSanta Marta
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshSpanish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation571 m8 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenSanta Marta
City population6,123505,915
People per km²1,4241,723
Museums within 10 km33
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.