VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Francisco 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 San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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. San Francisco 25, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Santa Marta 44: San Francisco leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Santa Marta 34: San Francisco leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Santa Marta 50: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 4 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Santa Marta 38: San Francisco leads by 34 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Santa Marta 40: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Santa Marta 38: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco 58, Santa Marta 27: San Francisco leads by 31 points.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 66 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Santa Marta 17: San Francisco leads by 59 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 42, Santa Marta 30: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Francisco and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
San FranciscoSanta Marta

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoSanta Marta
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation16 m8 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoSanta Marta
City population873,965505,915
People per km²1,4551,723
Museums within 10 km513
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 San Francisco 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). 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.