VacationSelector
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Marta or Steamboat Springs?

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

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • wellness
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Santa Marta leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Santa Marta 44, Steamboat Springs 30: Santa Marta leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Marta 34, Steamboat Springs 14: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Santa Marta 50, Steamboat Springs 20: Santa Marta leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Marta 84, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Santa Marta 38, Steamboat Springs 12: Santa Marta leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Santa Marta 40, Steamboat Springs 62: Steamboat Springs leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Santa Marta 38, Steamboat Springs 46: Steamboat Springs leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Marta 27, Steamboat Springs 22: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Santa Marta 80, Steamboat Springs 17: Santa Marta leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Marta 17, Steamboat Springs 28: Steamboat Springs leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Marta 30, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 40 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Santa Marta
Best match
46match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on wellness and families 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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MartaSteamboat Springs

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs 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). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MartaSteamboat Springs
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation8 m2,052 m
Main airportSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MartaSteamboat Springs
City population505,91513,224
People per km²1,723503
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Marta or Steamboat Springs 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.