VacationSelector
The towers of Panama City reflected in the bay in golden light, Panama City
Panama CityThe towers of Panama City reflected in the bay in golden light
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Panama City by Ayaita, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Panama City 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 Panama City for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Panama City’s own page.

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Panama City 44, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Panama City 57, Santa Marta 44: Panama City leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Panama City 62, Santa Marta 34: Panama City leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Panama City 62, Santa Marta 50: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Panama City 74, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Panama City 50, Santa Marta 38: Panama City leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Panama City 45, Santa Marta 40: Panama City leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Panama City 40, Santa Marta 38: Panama City leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Panama City 52, Santa Marta 27: Panama City leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Panama City 55, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Panama City 34, Santa Marta 17: Panama City leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Panama City 22, Santa Marta 30: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Panama City and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Panama City
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Panama City in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
161 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Panama CitySanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Panama City 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. Panama City: 1991-2020 normals, Tocumen (20.4 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePanama CitySanta Marta
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyBalboa (PAB)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation20 m8 m
Main airportTocumen International Airport (PTY)20 km from centre92 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasurePanama CitySanta Marta
City population1,540,000505,915
People per km²5,6001,723
Museums within 10 km103
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Panama City 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.