VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bath 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 Bath for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Bath’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. Bath 10, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Cartagena 62: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Bath and Cartagena are level on 68.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Cartagena 46: Bath leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Cartagena 33: Bath leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Cartagena 40: Bath leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Cartagena 54: Bath leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Cartagena 48: Bath leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Cartagena 60: Cartagena leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Cartagena 40: Bath leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Cartagena 40: Bath leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bath 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

Bath
51match

Wins on day trips and wellness 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.

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
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
BathCartagena

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathCartagena
Official languageEnglishSpanish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112 or 999123
Elevation132 m2 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathCartagena
City population94,092914,552
People per km²3,2451,599
Museums within 10 km172
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.