VacationSelector
Bodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour, Bodrum
BodrumBodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Bodrum by Serhio Magpie, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bodrum 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 Bodrum for

  • day trips
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • 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. Bodrum 80, Cartagena 70: Bodrum leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Bodrum 60, Cartagena 62: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Bodrum 45, Cartagena 68: Cartagena leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Bodrum 65, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bodrum 60, Cartagena 46: Bodrum leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Bodrum 72, Cartagena 33: Bodrum leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Bodrum 66, Cartagena 40: Bodrum leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Bodrum 42, Cartagena 54: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Bodrum 45, Cartagena 48: Cartagena leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bodrum 38, Cartagena 60: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bodrum 32, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bodrum 52, Cartagena 40: Bodrum leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bodrum 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

Bodrum
55match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Cartagena
53match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Bodrum in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 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
BodrumCartagena

Where the figures come from

Bodrum's temperatures are measured 43 km from the centre, at Kos Airport.

Bodrum 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. Bodrum: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kos Airport (42.7 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBodrumCartagena
Official languageTurkishSpanish
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation10 m2 m
Main airportMilas Bodrum International Airport (BJV)32 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBodrumCartagena
City population175,000914,552
People per km²3141,599
Museums within 10 km42
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bodrum 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.