VacationSelector
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Escondido 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 Puerto Escondido for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • culture and sights
  • 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. Puerto Escondido 82, Santa Marta 70: Puerto Escondido leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Escondido 48, Santa Marta 44: Puerto Escondido leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Escondido 8, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Escondido 45, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Escondido 78, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Puerto Escondido 35, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Puerto Escondido 42, Santa Marta 40: Puerto Escondido leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Puerto Escondido 40, Santa Marta 38: Puerto Escondido leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Escondido 22, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Puerto Escondido 68, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Escondido 12, Santa Marta 17: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Escondido 58, Santa Marta 30: Puerto Escondido leads by 28 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Puerto Escondido
45match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Puerto Escondido in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °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
Puerto EscondidoSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Puerto Escondido's temperatures are measured 66 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Puerto Escondido 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. Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto EscondidoSanta Marta
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation60 m8 m
Main airportPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto EscondidoSanta Marta
City population29,903505,915
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 Puerto Escondido 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). 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.