VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

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

Quito 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 Quito for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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. Quito 5, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Santa Marta 44: Quito leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Santa Marta 34: Quito leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Santa Marta 84: Quito leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Santa Marta 38: Quito leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Santa Marta 40: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Santa Marta 38: Quito leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Santa Marta 27: Quito leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Santa Marta 17: Quito leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Santa Marta 30: Quito leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Quito
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on beaches 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.

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoSanta Marta
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaSpanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation2,850 m8 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoSanta Marta
City population1,763,275505,915
People per km²4,7351,723
Museums within 10 km163
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Quito 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.