VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Orange 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 Orange Beach for

  • families
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Orange Beach’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. Orange Beach 86, Santa Marta 70: Orange Beach leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, Santa Marta 38: Orange Beach leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, Santa Marta 40: Orange Beach leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach 38, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach 32, Santa Marta 17: Orange Beach leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach 32, Santa Marta 30: Orange Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orange Beach and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on families and beaches 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.

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Orange BeachSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachSanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation4 m8 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachSanta Marta
City population8,095505,915
People per km²1961,723
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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