VacationSelector
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta
The Tugu monument in the centre of Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta
YogyakartaThe Tugu monument in the centre of Yogyakarta

Photos: Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Yogyakarta by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Santa Marta or Yogyakarta?

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
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Yogyakarta for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Yogyakarta’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, Yogyakarta 22: Santa Marta leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Santa Marta 44, Yogyakarta 62: Yogyakarta leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Marta 34, Yogyakarta 68: Yogyakarta leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Santa Marta 50, Yogyakarta 32: Santa Marta leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Marta 84, Yogyakarta 72: Santa Marta leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Santa Marta 38, Yogyakarta 78: Yogyakarta leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Santa Marta and Yogyakarta are level on 40.
Getting around. Santa Marta 38, Yogyakarta 35: Santa Marta leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Marta 27, Yogyakarta 52: Yogyakarta leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Santa Marta 80, Yogyakarta 92: Yogyakarta leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Marta 17, Yogyakarta 58: Yogyakarta leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Marta 30, Yogyakarta 50: Yogyakarta leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santa Marta and Yogyakarta.

Your match

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

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Yogyakarta
Best match
55match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Yogyakarta in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
55 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MartaYogyakarta

Where the figures come from

Yogyakarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Yogyakarta: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSanta MartaYogyakarta
Official languageSpanishIndonesian
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number123112
Elevation8 m113 m
Main airportSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsYogyakarta International Airport (YIA)39 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days-

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MartaYogyakarta
City population505,915422,732
People per km²1,72313,007
Museums within 10 km338
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
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 Yogyakarta 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.