VacationSelector
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Manchester 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 Manchester for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Manchester’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. Manchester 9, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Manchester 51, Santa Marta 44: Manchester leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Manchester 50, Santa Marta 34: Manchester leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Manchester 72, Santa Marta 50: Manchester leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manchester 64, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Manchester 77, Santa Marta 38: Manchester leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Manchester 58, Santa Marta 40: Manchester leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Manchester 68, Santa Marta 38: Manchester leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Manchester 62, Santa Marta 27: Manchester leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Manchester 42, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manchester 74, Santa Marta 17: Manchester leads by 57 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manchester 15, Santa Marta 30: Santa Marta leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Manchester
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and day trips 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.

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 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
ManchesterSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManchesterSanta Marta
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112 or 999123
Elevation38 m8 m
Main airportManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureManchesterSanta Marta
City population547,627505,915
People per km²4,7371,723
Museums within 10 km283
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Manchester 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.