VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bergen 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 Bergen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Bergen 20, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, Cartagena 62: Cartagena leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, Cartagena 68: Cartagena leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, Cartagena 46: Bergen leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Bergen 38, Cartagena 33: Bergen leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Bergen 60, Cartagena 40: Bergen leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Bergen 74, Cartagena 54: Bergen leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, Cartagena 48: Cartagena leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, Cartagena 60: Cartagena leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, Cartagena 40: Bergen leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bergen and Cartagena.

Your match

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

Bergen
46match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bergen in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 °Csea
18 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BergenCartagena

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenCartagena
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiSpanish
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110123
Elevation5 m2 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenCartagena
City population291,189914,552
People per km²3,3391,599
Museums within 10 km312
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 Bergen 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.