VacationSelector
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Playa del Carmen 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 Playa del Carmen for

  • families
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’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. Playa del Carmen 88, Santa Marta 70: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Playa del Carmen 52, Santa Marta 44: Playa del Carmen leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Playa del Carmen 12, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Playa del Carmen 66, Santa Marta 50: Playa del Carmen leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Playa del Carmen 74, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Playa del Carmen 72, Santa Marta 38: Playa del Carmen leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Playa del Carmen 78, Santa Marta 40: Playa del Carmen leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Playa del Carmen 55, Santa Marta 38: Playa del Carmen leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Playa del Carmen 38, Santa Marta 27: Playa del Carmen leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Playa del Carmen 52, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Playa del Carmen 22, Santa Marta 17: Playa del Carmen leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Playa del Carmen 54, Santa Marta 30: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Santa Marta
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.

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Playa del CarmenSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Playa del Carmen has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlaya del CarmenSanta Marta
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation8 m8 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlaya del CarmenSanta Marta
City population304,942505,915
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 Playa del Carmen or Santa Marta somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.