VacationSelector
The Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel, Amman
AmmanThe Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Amman by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Amman or Cartagena?

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 Amman for

  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Cartagena’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. Amman 22, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Amman and Cartagena are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Amman 54, Cartagena 68: Cartagena leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Amman 32, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amman 45, Cartagena 46: Cartagena leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Amman 80, Cartagena 33: Amman leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Amman 38, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Amman 30, Cartagena 54: Cartagena leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Amman 42, Cartagena 48: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Amman 58, Cartagena 60: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amman 27, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amman 55, Cartagena 40: Amman leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amman and Cartagena.

Your match

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

Amman
45match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Amman in July

33 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Cartagena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
124 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AmmanCartagena

Where the figures come from

Amman 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.

Amman's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Mafraq.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Amman: 1994-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Amman Airport (6 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmmanCartagena
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation776 m2 m
Main airportQueen Alia International Airport (AMM)26 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmmanCartagena
City population4,007,526914,552
People per km²2,3851,599
Museums within 10 km82
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amman or Cartagena 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.