VacationSelector
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Santa Marta or Santo Domingo?

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 Santa Marta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Santo Domingo for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Santo Domingo’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. Santa Marta 70, Santo Domingo 58: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Santa Marta 44, Santo Domingo 58: Santo Domingo leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Marta 34, Santo Domingo 64: Santo Domingo leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Santa Marta 50, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Marta 84, Santo Domingo 36: Santa Marta leads by 48 points.
Day trips. Santa Marta 38, Santo Domingo 44: Santo Domingo leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Santa Marta and Santo Domingo are level on 40.
Getting around. Santa Marta 38, Santo Domingo 40: Santo Domingo leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Marta 27, Santo Domingo 44: Santo Domingo leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Santa Marta 80, Santo Domingo 66: Santa Marta leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Marta 17, Santo Domingo 46: Santo Domingo leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Marta 30, Santo Domingo 22: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Marta and Santo Domingo.

Your match

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

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Santo Domingo
Best match
49match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MartaSanto Domingo

Where the figures come from

Santo Domingo 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. Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre). Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MartaSanto Domingo
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4
Emergency number123911
Elevation8 m14 m
Main airportSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MartaSanto Domingo
City population505,9152,201,941
People per km²1,7231,691
Museums within 10 km310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Santa Marta or Santo Domingo 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). 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. 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.