VacationSelector
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Portland 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 Portland for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • prices

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. Portland 20, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Portland 68, Santa Marta 44: Portland leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Portland 38, Santa Marta 34: Portland leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Portland 52, Santa Marta 50: Portland leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Portland and Santa Marta are level on 84.
Day trips. Portland 58, Santa Marta 38: Portland leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Portland 55, Santa Marta 40: Portland leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Portland 62, Santa Marta 38: Portland leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Portland 52, Santa Marta 27: Portland leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Portland 38, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Portland 55, Santa Marta 17: Portland leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Portland 42, Santa Marta 30: Portland leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Portland and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PortlandSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortlandSanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation152 m8 m
Main airportPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortlandSanta Marta
City population652,503505,915
People per km²1,7361,723
Museums within 10 km173
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Portland 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.