VacationSelector
Ross Castle on Lough Leane, Killarney
KillarneyRoss Castle on Lough Leane
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

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

Killarney 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 Killarney for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • wellness

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Killarney 22, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Killarney 33, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Killarney 28, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Killarney 32, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Killarney 82, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Killarney 58, Santa Marta 38: Killarney leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Killarney 42, Santa Marta 40: Killarney leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Killarney 47, Santa Marta 38: Killarney leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Killarney 22, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Killarney 35, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Killarney 35, Santa Marta 17: Killarney leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Killarney 42, Santa Marta 30: Killarney leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Killarney and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Killarney
40match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Killarney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
88 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
16 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
KillarneySanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Killarney's temperatures are measured 53 km from the centre, at Valentia Observatory.

Killarney 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. Killarney: 1991-2020 normals, Valentia Observatory (52.7 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKillarneySanta Marta
Official languageEnglish, IrishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation50 m8 m
Main airportKerry Airport (KIR)14 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureKillarneySanta Marta
City population14,412505,915
People per km²-1,723
Museums within 10 km13
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 Killarney 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.