VacationSelector
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Vallarta 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 Vallarta for

  • families
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Puerto Vallarta 85, Santa Marta 70: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Vallarta 62, Santa Marta 44: Puerto Vallarta leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Vallarta 28, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Vallarta 66, Santa Marta 50: Puerto Vallarta leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Vallarta 76, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Puerto Vallarta 55, Santa Marta 38: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Puerto Vallarta 65, Santa Marta 40: Puerto Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Puerto Vallarta 45, Santa Marta 38: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Vallarta 42, Santa Marta 27: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Puerto Vallarta 60, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Vallarta 32, Santa Marta 17: Puerto Vallarta leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Vallarta 52, Santa Marta 30: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Vallarta and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on families and wellness with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Puerto Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto VallartaSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Puerto Vallarta 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 Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto VallartaSanta 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
Elevation101 m8 m
Main airportPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto VallartaSanta Marta
City population224,166505,915
People per km²4,3111,723
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Vallarta 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.