VacationSelector
The harbour seen from above, Marmaris
MarmarisThe harbour seen from above
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Marmaris by Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Marmaris 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 Marmaris for

  • day trips
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Marmaris 80, Santa Marta 70: Marmaris leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Marmaris 40, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Marmaris 18, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Marmaris 60, Santa Marta 50: Marmaris leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marmaris 72, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Marmaris 65, Santa Marta 38: Marmaris leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Marmaris 62, Santa Marta 40: Marmaris leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Marmaris 55, Santa Marta 38: Marmaris leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Marmaris 38, Santa Marta 27: Marmaris leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Marmaris 62, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marmaris 12, Santa Marta 17: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marmaris 50, Santa Marta 30: Marmaris leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marmaris and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Marmaris
Best match
51match

Wins on day trips and families 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.

Marmaris in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MarmarisSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Marmaris's temperatures are measured 49 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Marmaris has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marmaris: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (48.8 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarmarisSanta Marta
Official languageTurkishSpanish
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation7 m8 m
Main airportDalaman International Airport (DLM)49 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarmarisSanta Marta
City population97,818505,915
People per km²1111,723
Museums within 10 km13
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marmaris 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.