VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Baku 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 Baku for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Baku 40, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, Cartagena 62: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, Cartagena 68: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Cartagena 46: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Cartagena 33: Baku leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Cartagena 40: Baku leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Cartagena 54: Baku leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Baku and Cartagena are level on 48.
Affordability. Baku 64, Cartagena 60: Baku leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, Cartagena 40: Baku leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku 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: Baku and Cartagena.

Your match

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

Baku
48match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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.

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
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
BakuCartagena

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuCartagena
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-5
Emergency number102 or 112123
Elevation-28 m2 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuCartagena
City population2,300,500914,552
People per km²1,0751,599
Museums within 10 km502
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.