VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bologna 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 Bologna for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Bologna’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. Bologna 30, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Cartagena 62: Bologna leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Cartagena 68: Bologna leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Cartagena 46: Bologna leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Cartagena 33: Bologna leads by 62 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Cartagena 40: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Cartagena 54: Bologna leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Cartagena 48: Bologna leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Cartagena 60: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Cartagena 40: Bologna leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna and Cartagena are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Cartagena.

Your match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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.

Bologna in July

32 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
BolognaCartagena

Where the figures come from

Bologna 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.

Bologna's sunshine is measured 82 km from the centre, at Cervia.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaCartagena
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation54 m2 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaCartagena
City population387,971914,552
People per km²2,7541,599
Museums within 10 km682
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.