VacationSelector
Grote Markt and the Brabo Fountain, Antwerp
AntwerpGrote Markt and the Brabo Fountain
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Antwerp by Norbert Jakab, Pexels License; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antwerp 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 Antwerp for

  • day trips
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Antwerp 15, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Antwerp and Cartagena are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Antwerp 73, Cartagena 68: Antwerp leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Antwerp 56, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antwerp 33, Cartagena 46: Cartagena leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Antwerp 86, Cartagena 33: Antwerp leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Antwerp 62, Cartagena 40: Antwerp leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Antwerp 75, Cartagena 54: Antwerp leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Antwerp 70, Cartagena 48: Antwerp leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Antwerp 38, Cartagena 60: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antwerp 58, Cartagena 40: Antwerp leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antwerp 30, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antwerp and Cartagena.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Antwerp
55match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Antwerp in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
AntwerpCartagena

Where the figures come from

Antwerp 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.

Antwerp's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Uccle.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Antwerp: 1991-2020 normals, Antwerpen / Deurne (5.2 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntwerpCartagena
Official languageFrench, German, DutchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation7 m2 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)36 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntwerpCartagena
City population529,247914,552
People per km²2,5421,599
Museums within 10 km382
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km91
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 Antwerp 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.