VacationSelector
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Santa Marta or York?

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 York for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Santa Marta leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Santa Marta 44, York 42: Santa Marta leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Santa Marta 34, York 70: York leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Santa Marta 50, York 36: Santa Marta leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santa Marta 84, York 62: Santa Marta leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Santa Marta 38, York 80: York leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Santa Marta 40, York 60: York leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Santa Marta 38, York 72: York leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Santa Marta 27, York 46: York leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Santa Marta 80, York 38: Santa Marta leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santa Marta 17, York 38: York leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santa Marta 30, York 34: York leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

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.

York
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Santa MartaYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

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). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSanta MartaYork
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number123112 or 999
Elevation8 m25 m
Main airportSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureSanta MartaYork
City population505,915208,400
People per km²1,723766
Museums within 10 km324
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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