VacationSelector
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Marta or Virginia Beach?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Santa Marta 44, Virginia Beach 42: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Marta 34, Virginia Beach 30: Santa Marta leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Santa Marta 50, Virginia Beach 37: Santa Marta leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Marta 84, Virginia Beach 56: Santa Marta leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Santa Marta 38, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Santa Marta 40, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Santa Marta 38, Virginia Beach 27: Santa Marta leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Marta 27, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Santa Marta 80, Virginia Beach 40: Santa Marta leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Marta 17, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Marta 30, Virginia Beach 32: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Marta and Virginia Beach.

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 prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on families 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MartaVirginia Beach

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). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MartaVirginia Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation8 m7 m
Main airportSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MartaVirginia Beach
City population505,915459,470
People per km²1,723-
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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