VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Key West 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 Key West for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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. Key West 60, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Santa Marta 44: Key West leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Santa Marta 34: Key West leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Santa Marta 50: Key West leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Key West and Santa Marta are level on 40.
Getting around. Key West 62, Santa Marta 38: Key West leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Santa Marta 27: Key West leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 65 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Santa Marta 17: Key West leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Santa Marta 30: Key West leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West 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

Key West
44match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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.

Key West in July

32 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Key West's temperatures are measured 69 km from the centre, at Key West Airport.

Key West 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. Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestSanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation4 m8 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestSanta Marta
City population26,444505,915
People per km²1,4071,723
Museums within 10 km73
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 Key West 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.