VacationSelector
A purple lifeguard tower on South Beach, Miami Beach
Miami BeachA purple lifeguard tower on South Beach
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Miami Beach by Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Miami 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 Miami Beach for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • 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. Miami Beach 92, Santa Marta 70: Miami Beach leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Miami Beach 62, Santa Marta 44: Miami Beach leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Miami Beach 52, Santa Marta 34: Miami Beach leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Miami Beach 80, Santa Marta 50: Miami Beach leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Miami Beach 52, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Miami Beach 55, Santa Marta 38: Miami Beach leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Miami Beach 60, Santa Marta 40: Miami Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Miami Beach 58, Santa Marta 38: Miami Beach leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Miami Beach 55, Santa Marta 27: Miami Beach leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Miami Beach 20, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Miami Beach 55, Santa Marta 17: Miami Beach leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Miami Beach 48, Santa Marta 30: Miami Beach leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Miami Beach and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Miami Beach
Best match
57match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Miami Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Miami BeachSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Miami Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (18.8 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMiami BeachSanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation1 m8 m
Main airportMiami International Airport (MIA)16 km from centre198 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureMiami BeachSanta Marta
City population82,890505,915
People per km²2,1091,723
Museums within 10 km143
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 Miami 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.