VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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. Arequipa 8, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Cartagena 62: Arequipa leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Cartagena 68: Cartagena leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Cartagena 46: Arequipa leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Cartagena 33: Cartagena leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Arequipa and Cartagena are level on 54.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Cartagena 48: Cartagena leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Cartagena 60: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Cartagena.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices 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.

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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
ArequipaCartagena

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaCartagena
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number111 or 911123
Elevation2,335 m2 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaCartagena
City population1,008,290914,552
People per km²1,5511,599
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Arequipa 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.