Santa Marta is a small, touristy city on Colombian's Caribbean coast. There are several ways to get there from the U.S. You can fly to Bogotá, there are direct flights from several cities in the U.S including Houston. From there you can connect to a flight to Santa Marta. The flight is just one hour long and there are several flights per day operated by several air carriers.
If you want to fly straight to the Caribbean coast, and maybe spend some time visiting different cities, from Miami and NYC you can fly direct to Cartagena and Barranquilla. Cartagena is 4 hours away from Santa Marta by car and it's well-known worldwide for its colonial architecture. You can also fly to Barranquilla which is 1 hour away by car from Santa Marta.
