VacationSelector
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Positano 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 Positano for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • wellness

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. Positano 77, Santa Marta 70: Positano leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Positano 40, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Positano 22, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Positano 22, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Positano 80, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Positano 88, Santa Marta 38: Positano leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Positano 28, Santa Marta 40: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Positano 35, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Positano 45, Santa Marta 27: Positano leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Positano 10, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 70 points.
Live music & performing arts. Positano 15, Santa Marta 17: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Positano 45, Santa Marta 30: Positano leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Positano and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Positano
42match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
46match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
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
PositanoSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano 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.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePositanoSanta Marta
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation142 m8 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasurePositanoSanta Marta
City population3,729505,915
People per km²4291,723
Museums within 10 km103
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Positano 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.