Magdalena Department · Colombia
Where to stay in Santa Marta
Santa Marta is a city in Magdalena Department, Colombia, home to about 506,000 people.
- Nearest airport
- SMR13 km · Simón Bolívar International Airport
- Currency
- COPColombian peso
- Time zone
- America/Bogota
- Language
- Spanish
About
About Santa Marta
Santa Marta, officially the Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta (English: Historic, Cultural & Tourist District of Santa Marta), is a port city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is renowned in Latin American as the place of death of Simón Bolívar.
Santa Marta an important commercial port and tourist destination. Every day, there are cargo ships coming and going and the action is very much visible. From the beach, the view of the Caribbean Sea is more or less to the west (beautiful sunsets) with a huge rock of an island jutting up out of the water to make a somewhat dramatic effect. Off to the right is the port snug behind another even bigger rock. This is a decent beach if you like beaches that are right in town with lots of people, vendors, and noise. Vendors are extremely aggressive if you are on the beach.
Wikipedia and Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Things to do
What to see and do in Santa Marta
See
- Museo del Oro
- Simon Bolivar's place of death
Do
- beach near the port
- Playa de Bahia
- Playa los cocos
- Playa El Rodadero
- Scuba diving
- Jet ski
- Birdwatching
- Spanish School
- Tayrona National Natural Park
- Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Natural Park
- Adrenaline Addicts
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Where to stay
Which part of Santa Marta to stay in
Hostels with dorms are available in the historical center, throughout the city and at the El Rodadero Beach. There are also accommodations in nearby Taganga, Minca or inside the Tayrona National Park. Santa Marta is quite hot, you may want to choose an accommodation with air conditioning.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Where to stay
Hotels in Santa Marta
6 hotels within 25 km of the centre, as recorded in Wikidata. Each name links to its encyclopedia article where there is one.
| Hotel | Opened | From centre |
|---|---|---|
| Camali Hotel | 0.7 km | |
| Casa Amarilla | 0.6 km | |
| Hotel Parque de los Novios Inn | 1.4 km | |
| Mauricio Babilonia | 1.1 km | |
| Mirador del Bosque | 23.6 km | |
| Solaz Hostel Santa Marta | 1.1 km |
All 6 hotels in Santa Marta, with their history and operators
When to go
The best time to visit Santa Marta
Santa Marta has no month that is both mild and dry by the measure used here. April is the warmest month, with average highs of 31 °C; October is the wettest, with about 242 mm of rain.
Comfortable means average daytime high between 18 °C and 29 °C and under 80 mm of rain in the month. Averages for 1991–2020 over the surrounding area, a grid square about 50 km across, so a coast or a nearby mountain can make the town itself warmer or cooler. Data: CRU TS v4.10, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia (Open Database License).
Getting there
Getting to Santa Marta: airports and arrival
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Simón Bolívar International Airport (SMR), about 13 km from the city centre in a straight line; Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport (BAQ, 74 km) and Alfonso López Pumarejo Airport (VUP, 137 km) are also within reach.
Getting around
Streets are numbered. The beach can be considered "Carrera 1" or 1st St., and the first street is usually "Carrera 1A" or 1A St. The next street after the first row of buildings is Carrera 2 or 2nd St. Calles are streets running from east to west. Moovit covers the area for finding connections. As there are no bus stops, buses can be entered and exited anywhere along their routes. The price is COP$2,700 (May 2025) and is paid to the driver when entering the bus. Unlike bigger cities in Colombia, taxis do not run on a meter.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
SMR · Simón Bolívar International Airport
BAQ · Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport
VUP · Alfonso López Pumarejo Airport
Local knowledge
Eating, drinking and staying safe in Santa Marta
Eat
There are a lot of eating options. They seem to be good at roasting and grilling chicken. They do a good job of grilling beef, tough but flavorful. Seafood is plentiful and relatively inexpensive with lots of shrimp and seafood cocktail vendors. Most varieties of fruit are available even those more common to cold climates. At night street vendors sell all types of snacks like pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, shakes, kabobs, rice in coconut milk, fried stuffed doughy things, etc. Coffee, hot chocolate, and both hot cinnamon and lemon are omni-present.
Stay safe
Like in other Colombian cities avoid traveling alone, with visible expensive electronics, esp. in public areas or at night. There's a new walking path "Sendero Peatonal Ziruma-Rodadero" from the outskirts of the downtown area to Rodadero and the beaches there. While they cover a beautiful scenery often hard to admire by bus or car, it has long and desolate stretches and goes through some poor and unsafe barrios. There's very little police presence along the different paths. Do not use these paths alone as a tourist to get to or from Rodadero. Tourists have been mugged at gunpoint on those walkways in broad daylight. Take the cheap blue buses, or a taxi.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Questions
Santa Marta: questions travellers ask
When is the best time to visit Santa Marta?
Santa Marta has no month that is both mild and dry by the measure used here. April is the warmest month, with average highs of 31 °C; October is the wettest, with about 242 mm of rain.
Which airport is closest to Santa Marta?
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Simón Bolívar International Airport (SMR), about 13 km from the city centre in a straight line; Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport (BAQ, 74 km) and Alfonso López Pumarejo Airport (VUP, 137 km) are also within reach.
What currency is used in Santa Marta?
Colombian peso (COP).
Nearby
Destinations near Santa Marta
Sources: city facts from Wikidata and Wikipedia; airports from OurAirports; climate from CRU TS v4.10 (University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit), 1991–2020 monthly means, 0.5° grid; places to stay, guest scores and amenities from each operator's own public pages. How this guide is made.