VacationSelector
Titanic Belfast, Belfast
BelfastTitanic Belfast
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Belfast by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Belfast 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 Belfast for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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. Belfast 20, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Belfast 50, Cartagena 62: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Belfast 55, Cartagena 68: Cartagena leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Belfast 50, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Belfast 74, Cartagena 46: Belfast leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Belfast 66, Cartagena 33: Belfast leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Belfast 58, Cartagena 40: Belfast leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Belfast 62, Cartagena 54: Belfast leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Belfast 45, Cartagena 48: Cartagena leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Belfast 48, Cartagena 60: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Belfast 55, Cartagena 40: Belfast leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Belfast 25, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Belfast 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

Belfast
51match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors 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.

Belfast in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
17 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
BelfastCartagena

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Belfast: 1991-2020 normals, Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (19.4 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBelfastCartagena
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
Elevation3 m2 m
Main airportGeorge Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)4 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBelfastCartagena
City population345,006914,552
People per km²3,0001,599
Museums within 10 km82
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Belfast 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.