VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Johannesburg 5, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Santa Marta 44: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Santa Marta 34: Johannesburg leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Santa Marta 50: Johannesburg leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Santa Marta 38: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Santa Marta 40: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Santa Marta 27: Johannesburg leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Santa Marta 17: Johannesburg leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Santa Marta 30: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on beaches 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.

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgSanta Marta
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation1,753 m8 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgSanta Marta
City population4,803,262505,915
People per km²2,9221,723
Museums within 10 km143
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 Johannesburg 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). 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.