VacationSelector
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Laguna Beach 72, Santa Marta 70: Laguna Beach leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Laguna Beach 40, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Laguna Beach 27, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Laguna Beach 18, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Laguna Beach 73, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Laguna Beach 72, Santa Marta 38: Laguna Beach leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Laguna Beach 68, Santa Marta 40: Laguna Beach leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Laguna Beach 33, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Laguna Beach 46, Santa Marta 27: Laguna Beach leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Laguna Beach 12, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 68 points.
Live music & performing arts. Laguna Beach 40, Santa Marta 17: Laguna Beach leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Laguna Beach 47, Santa Marta 30: Laguna Beach leads by 17 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Laguna Beach and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Laguna BeachSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLaguna BeachSanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation6 m8 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureLaguna BeachSanta Marta
City population23,032505,915
People per km²9071,723
Museums within 10 km23
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 Laguna Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.