VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Rio de Janeiro 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 Rio de Janeiro for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Rio de Janeiro’s own page.

Choose Santa Marta for

  • 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. Rio de Janeiro 92, Santa Marta 70: Rio de Janeiro leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Santa Marta 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Santa Marta 34: Rio de Janeiro leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Santa Marta 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Santa Marta 84: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Santa Marta 38: Rio de Janeiro leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Santa Marta 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Santa Marta 38: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Santa Marta 27: Rio de Janeiro leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Santa Marta 17: Rio de Janeiro leads by 49 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro and Santa Marta are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

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

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Rio de Janeiro in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
45 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
11 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
Rio de JaneiroSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

Rio de Janeiro 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. Rio de Janeiro: 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

MeasureRio de JaneiroSanta Marta
Official languagePortugueseSpanish
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCN60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193123
Elevation31 m8 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroSanta Marta
City population6,211,223505,915
People per km²4,9301,723
Museums within 10 km693
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Rio de Janeiro 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. 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). 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. 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.