VacationSelector
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Riga 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 Riga for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Riga 40, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Riga 52, Santa Marta 44: Riga leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Riga 66, Santa Marta 34: Riga leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Riga 52, Santa Marta 50: Riga leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Riga 55, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Riga 60, Santa Marta 38: Riga leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Riga 50, Santa Marta 40: Riga leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Riga 68, Santa Marta 38: Riga leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Riga 45, Santa Marta 27: Riga leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Riga 62, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Riga 65, Santa Marta 17: Riga leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Riga 50, Santa Marta 30: Riga leads by 20 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Riga
Best match
55match

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

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on beaches 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.

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
RigaSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRigaSanta Marta
Official languageLatvianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation6 m8 m
Main airportRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureRigaSanta Marta
City population588,911505,915
People per km²-1,723
Museums within 10 km123
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Riga 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.