VacationSelector
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Santa Marta or Washington DC?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Washington DC for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Santa Marta leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Santa Marta 44, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Marta 34, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Santa Marta 50, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Marta 84, Washington DC 64: Santa Marta leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Santa Marta 38, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Santa Marta 40, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Santa Marta 38, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Marta 27, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Santa Marta 80, Washington DC 28: Santa Marta leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Marta 17, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Marta 30, Washington DC 26: Santa Marta leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Washington DC
Best match
56match

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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MartaWashington DC

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MartaWashington DC
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 m72 m
Main airportSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MartaWashington DC
City population505,915689,545
People per km²1,7233,896
Museums within 10 km398
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Santa Marta or Washington DC 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.