VacationSelector
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Marta or Valparaiso?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Santa Marta leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Santa Marta 44, Valparaiso 50: Valparaiso leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Marta 34, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Santa Marta 50, Valparaiso 56: Valparaiso leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Marta 84, Valparaiso 60: Santa Marta leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Santa Marta 38, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Santa Marta 40, Valparaiso 33: Santa Marta leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Santa Marta 38, Valparaiso 44: Valparaiso leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Marta 27, Valparaiso 30: Valparaiso leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Santa Marta 80, Valparaiso 60: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Marta 17, Valparaiso 38: Valparaiso leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Marta 30, Valparaiso 18: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Santa Marta
46match

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

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MartaValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MartaValparaiso
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number123Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation8 m21 m
Main airportSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MartaValparaiso
City population505,915296,655
People per km²1,7236,180
Museums within 10 km317
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Marta or Valparaiso 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.