VacationSelector
La Paz
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

La Paz 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 La Paz for

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

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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. La Paz 3, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. La Paz 50, Santa Marta 44: La Paz leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. La Paz 52, Santa Marta 34: La Paz leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. La Paz 38, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Paz 82, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Day trips. La Paz 40, Santa Marta 38: La Paz leads by 2 points.
Good for families. La Paz 10, Santa Marta 40: Santa Marta leads by 30 points.
Getting around. La Paz 45, Santa Marta 38: La Paz leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. La Paz 45, Santa Marta 27: La Paz leads by 18 points.
Affordability. La Paz 92, Santa Marta 80: La Paz leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Paz 35, Santa Marta 17: La Paz leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Paz 12, Santa Marta 30: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Paz and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

La Paz
42match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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
La PazSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

La Paz has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa PazSanta Marta
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, GuaraniSpanish
CurrencyBoliviano (BOB)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAC50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation3,640 m8 m
Main airportEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa PazSanta Marta
City population755,732505,915
People per km²1,6011,723
Museums within 10 km213
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 La Paz or Santa Marta somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. 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.