VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Newport 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 Newport Beach for

  • families
  • shopping
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport Beach’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. Newport Beach and Santa Marta are level on 70.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Santa Marta 44: Newport Beach leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Santa Marta 38: Newport Beach leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Santa Marta 40: Newport Beach leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Santa Marta 27: Newport Beach leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 65 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Santa Marta 17: Newport Beach leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Santa Marta 30: Newport Beach leads by 14 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Newport Beach 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

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on families and shopping 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.

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachSanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation3 m8 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachSanta Marta
City population85,239505,915
People per km²6221,723
Museums within 10 km43
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Newport 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.