VacationSelector
Wat Pho, Bangkok
BangkokWat Pho
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Bangkok by Lu Zhao, Pexels License; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bangkok 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 Bangkok for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Bangkok 12, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Bangkok 95, Cartagena 62: Bangkok leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Bangkok 80, Cartagena 68: Bangkok leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Bangkok 85, Cartagena 70: Bangkok leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bangkok 25, Cartagena 46: Cartagena leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Bangkok 72, Cartagena 33: Bangkok leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Bangkok 50, Cartagena 40: Bangkok leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bangkok 50, Cartagena 54: Cartagena leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Bangkok 80, Cartagena 48: Bangkok leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Bangkok 85, Cartagena 60: Bangkok leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bangkok 52, Cartagena 40: Bangkok leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bangkok 75, Cartagena 40: Bangkok leads by 35 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bangkok and Cartagena.

Your match

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

Bangkok
Best match
63match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bangkok in July

34 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
184 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BangkokCartagena

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bangkok: 1991-2020 normals, Bangkok (5.7 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBangkokCartagena
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199123
Elevation2 m2 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)26 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBangkokCartagena
City population5,676,648914,552
People per km²3,6191,599
Museums within 10 km592
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bangkok 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.