VacationSelector
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Negril 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 Negril for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Negril’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. Negril 93, Santa Marta 70: Negril leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Negril 36, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Negril 8, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Negril 40, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Negril 60, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Negril 35, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Negril 45, Santa Marta 40: Negril leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Negril 30, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Negril 15, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Negril 44, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Negril 33, Santa Marta 17: Negril leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Negril 52, Santa Marta 30: Negril leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Negril and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Negril
41match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
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.

Negril in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
174 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
NegrilSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Negril's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Montego Bay / Sangster.

Negril 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. Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNegrilSanta 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
Elevation10 m8 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 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

MeasureNegrilSanta Marta
City population4,500505,915
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 Negril 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.