VacationSelector
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Princesa 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 Princesa for

  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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 Princesa 58, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Princesa 38, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Princesa 22, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Princesa 26, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Princesa 80, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Puerto Princesa 12, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Puerto Princesa 45, Santa Marta 40: Puerto Princesa leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Puerto Princesa 30, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Princesa 20, Santa Marta 27: Santa Marta leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Puerto Princesa 78, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Princesa 10, Santa Marta 17: Santa Marta leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Princesa 40, Santa Marta 30: Puerto Princesa leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Princesa and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
46match

Wins on day trips 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.

Puerto Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 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
Puerto PrincesaSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Puerto Princesa 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. Puerto Princesa: 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

MeasurePuerto PrincesaSanta Marta
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation98 m8 m
Main airportPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto PrincesaSanta Marta
City population316,384505,915
People per km²1331,723
Museums within 10 km13
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 Princesa 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.