VacationSelector
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Punta Cana 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 Punta Cana for

  • families
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta Cana’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. Punta Cana 94, Santa Marta 70: Punta Cana leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Punta Cana 30, Santa Marta 44: Santa Marta leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Punta Cana 8, Santa Marta 34: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Punta Cana 40, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Punta Cana 52, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Punta Cana 35, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Punta Cana 68, Santa Marta 40: Punta Cana leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Punta Cana 15, Santa Marta 38: Santa Marta leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Punta Cana 30, Santa Marta 27: Punta Cana leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Punta Cana 44, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Punta Cana 15, Santa Marta 17: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Punta Cana 52, Santa Marta 30: Punta Cana leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Punta Cana and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Marta
Best match
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.

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Punta CanaSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Punta Cana 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. Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePunta CanaSanta Marta
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyDominican Peso (DOP)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation28 m8 m
Main airportPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasurePunta CanaSanta Marta
City population138,919505,915
People per km²2921,723
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 Punta Cana 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.