Santa Marta: the vibe
Videos from people who went, played right here, with what viewers said underneath. Not part of the score.
The verdict
Mixed · 55Mixed picture: people love the nature, beaches, food and friendly locals, but warn about cost creep, neglect, theft and health issues, so it's a genuinely split verdict.
- nature and Tayrona park
- friendly locals
- food and cafes
- beaches
- affordable real estate
- cheaper than Tulum or Playa del Carmen
- cost increases for expats
- trash and neglect
- thieves and safety
- water and GI illness
- overtourism and poor tourism alignment
- limited beach quality in city
- Nature and coast are beautiful but the city itself is run down
- Cheaper than Mexican Caribbean destinations for many people
- Some expats have left as costs rose
- Downtown and Tayrona are worth visiting; the city is not uniformly good
- Water quality concerns make swimming and eating local food risky for some
Read from 8 videos, 40 comments and 0 posts on 2026-11-07; the summary is written by a language model and can misread sarcasm.
My HONEST IMPRESSIONS of Santa Marta, Colombia
Gringo Nation · 22K views · 2022
What viewers said
“San Marta is my city. But now I live in Italy, I miss it so much. I do not miss thieves at all, and I have too many places to visit up here, I just returned from Prague. Beautiful, If you don't know it, I truly recommend it.”
♥ 4 likes
“Un posto spettacolare reso da questa affermazione dalla gente colombiana super felice e ridente.”
♥ 1 likes
“Generalizations. See one colonial building in poor shape but missed the historic center where all colonial buildings are well kept. See one beach in the city but missed over 30 other beaches for different taste and beauty”
♥ 5 likes
“For some reason I didn't expect Santa Marta to be quite so big. I always imagined it to be a much smaller place. I'm glad you were able to find some nice places to eat, but too bad you weren't able to go to Tayrona!”
♥ 8 likes
“Tayrona National Park is absolutely stunning ❤Great video keep them coming🎥”
♥ 3 likes
“Thank you!! What a great video showing Santa Marta!!”
♥ 4 likes
“i spent four nights in the park in Cabo and loved it. Booked it in Taganga and took a boat from there”
♥ 2 likes
“We miss fireworks! Mexico is our first country in a while without random fireworks lol. Ikaro Cafe looks nice and the food very yummy. Looks un at night. Finally we get to see the arepa that changed your whole perspective on them, lol. Grea”
♥ 5 likes
“Nice presentation and your language skills are excellent. I'd love to spend some time in Colombia and Santa Marta seems like a good choice except for the lack of a perfect beach.”
♥ 2 likes
“Have about Honest prices of the places you visited.”
♥ 1 likes
Found with a YouTube search for the city and “digital nomad”, fetched 2026-11-07; titles, descriptions and comments belong to their authors and link to the originals.