VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Paphos 76, Santa Marta 70: Paphos leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Santa Marta 44: Paphos leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Santa Marta 34: Paphos leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Santa Marta 38: Paphos leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Santa Marta 40: Paphos leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Santa Marta 38: Paphos leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Santa Marta 17: Paphos leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Santa Marta 30: Paphos leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Paphos
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and families 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.

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °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
PaphosSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosSanta Marta
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation72 m8 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosSanta Marta
City population35,961505,915
People per km²1,9871,723
Museums within 10 km43
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.