VacationSelector
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Los Cabos 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 Los Cabos for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Los Cabos 84, Santa Marta 70: Los Cabos leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Los Cabos 54, Santa Marta 44: Los Cabos leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Los Cabos 20, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Los Cabos 66, Santa Marta 50: Los Cabos leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Cabos 78, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Los Cabos 42, Santa Marta 38: Los Cabos leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Los Cabos 55, Santa Marta 40: Los Cabos leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Los Cabos 28, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Los Cabos 36, Santa Marta 27: Los Cabos leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Los Cabos 28, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Cabos 12, Santa Marta 17: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Cabos 58, Santa Marta 30: Los Cabos leads by 28 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Cabos 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

Los Cabos
47match

Wins on wellness and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Cabos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
19 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
13 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
Los CabosSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Los Cabos 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. Los Cabos: 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

MeasureLos CabosSanta Marta
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation11 m8 m
Main airportLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos CabosSanta Marta
City population202,694505,915
People per km²-1,723
Museums within 10 km13
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 Los Cabos 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. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.