VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Madrid 5, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Santa Marta 44: Madrid leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Santa Marta 34: Madrid leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Santa Marta 50: Madrid leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Santa Marta 38: Madrid leads by 51 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Santa Marta 40: Madrid leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Santa Marta 38: Madrid leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Santa Marta 27: Madrid leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Santa Marta 17: Madrid leads by 60 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Santa Marta 30: Madrid leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Santa Marta
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.

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
MadridSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridSanta Marta
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation663 m8 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridSanta Marta
City population3,506,730505,915
People per km²5,8011,723
Museums within 10 km883
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 Madrid 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. 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. 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.