VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montego Bay 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 Montego Bay for

  • live music and the arts
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Montego Bay’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. Montego Bay 84, Santa Marta 70: Montego Bay leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Santa Marta 44: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Santa Marta 38: Montego Bay leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Santa Marta 40: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Santa Marta 17: Montego Bay leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Santa Marta 30: Montego Bay leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on live music and the arts and wellness 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.

Montego Bay in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BaySanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySanta Marta
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisSpanish
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110123
Elevation19 m8 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySanta Marta
City population123,994505,915
People per km²-1,723
Museums within 10 km03
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 Montego Bay or Santa Marta somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. 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.