VacationSelector
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Santa Marta or Tamarindo?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Tamarindo’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, Tamarindo 85: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Santa Marta 44, Tamarindo 38: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Marta 34, Tamarindo 5: Santa Marta leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Santa Marta 50, Tamarindo 45: Santa Marta leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Marta 84, Tamarindo 76: Santa Marta leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Santa Marta 38, Tamarindo 28: Santa Marta leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Santa Marta 40, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Santa Marta 38, Tamarindo 32: Santa Marta leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Marta 27, Tamarindo 18: Santa Marta leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Santa Marta 80, Tamarindo 36: Santa Marta leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Marta 17, Tamarindo 10: Santa Marta leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Marta 30, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Marta and Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Santa Marta
Best match
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on beaches 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

Tamarindo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
129 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MartaTamarindo

Where the figures come from

Tamarindo's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Liberia.

Tamarindo 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). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MartaTamarindo
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number123911
Elevation8 m27 m
Main airportSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MartaTamarindo
City population505,9157,132
People per km²1,72357
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Tamarindo 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.