VacationSelector
The Palais des Papes and the cathedral, Avignon
AvignonThe Palais des Papes and the cathedral
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Avignon by BlueBreezeWiki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Avignon 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 Avignon for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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. Avignon 22, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Avignon 57, Cartagena 62: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Avignon 69, Cartagena 68: Avignon leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Avignon 30, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Avignon 70, Cartagena 46: Avignon leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Avignon 92, Cartagena 33: Avignon leads by 59 points.
Good for families. Avignon 45, Cartagena 40: Avignon leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Avignon 62, Cartagena 54: Avignon leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Avignon 38, Cartagena 48: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Avignon 44, Cartagena 60: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Avignon 68, Cartagena 40: Avignon leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Avignon 35, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Avignon and Cartagena.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Avignon
53match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Cartagena
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.

Avignon in July

32 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
24 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
AvignonCartagena

Where the figures come from

Avignon 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.

Avignon's sunshine is measured 65 km from the centre, at Marseille / Marignane.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Avignon: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Avignon / Morières-lès-Avignon (8.6 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAvignonCartagena
Official languageFrenchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation10 m2 m
Main airportMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)65 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureAvignonCartagena
City population92,188914,552
People per km²1,4201,599
Museums within 10 km112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km61
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 Avignon 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.