VacationSelector
A lifeguard stand on South Beach, Miami
MiamiA lifeguard stand on South Beach
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

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

Miami 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 for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Miami 90, Santa Marta 70: Miami leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Miami 72, Santa Marta 44: Miami leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Miami 57, Santa Marta 34: Miami leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Miami 82, Santa Marta 50: Miami leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Miami 64, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Miami 42, Santa Marta 38: Miami leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Miami 64, Santa Marta 40: Miami leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Miami 35, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Miami 71, Santa Marta 27: Miami leads by 44 points.
Affordability. Miami 27, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Miami 55, Santa Marta 17: Miami leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Miami 44, Santa Marta 30: Miami leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Miami and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Miami
Best match
59match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts 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 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
MiamiSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMiamiSanta 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
Elevation2 m8 m
Main airportMiami International Airport (MIA)7 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

MeasureMiamiSanta Marta
City population442,241505,915
People per km²3,0461,723
Museums within 10 km173
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 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.