VacationSelector
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Miguel de Allende 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 Miguel de Allende for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’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. San Miguel de Allende 4, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. San Miguel de Allende 62, Santa Marta 44: San Miguel de Allende leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. San Miguel de Allende 62, Santa Marta 34: San Miguel de Allende leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. San Miguel de Allende 38, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Miguel de Allende 40, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 44 points.
Day trips. San Miguel de Allende 77, Santa Marta 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 39 points.
Good for families. San Miguel de Allende 32, Santa Marta 40: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Getting around. San Miguel de Allende 48, Santa Marta 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. San Miguel de Allende 55, Santa Marta 27: San Miguel de Allende leads by 28 points.
Affordability. San Miguel de Allende 50, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Miguel de Allende 40, Santa Marta 17: San Miguel de Allende leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Miguel de Allende 66, Santa Marta 30: San Miguel de Allende leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Miguel de Allende and Santa Marta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on day trips and wellness 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.

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
San Miguel de AllendeSanta Marta

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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. San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeSanta Marta
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation1,900 m8 m
Main airportGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeSanta Marta
City population69,811505,915
People per km²-1,723
Museums within 10 km23
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 San Miguel de Allende 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.