VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ocho Rios 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 Ocho Rios for

  • families
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. Ocho Rios 78, Santa Marta 70: Ocho Rios leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios 72, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Santa Marta 38: Ocho Rios leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, Santa Marta 40: Ocho Rios leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Santa Marta 17: Santa Marta leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Santa Marta 30: Ocho Rios leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocho Rios and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on families and wellness with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
46match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ocho Rios in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Ocho Rios's temperatures are measured 62 km from the centre, at Kingston / Norman Manley.

Ocho Rios 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. Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosSanta 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
Elevation59 m8 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 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

MeasureOcho RiosSanta Marta
City population16,671505,915
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 Ocho Rios 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.