VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Buenos Aires 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 Buenos Aires for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Buenos Aires 7, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, Cartagena 62: Buenos Aires leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Cartagena 68: Buenos Aires leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Cartagena 70: Buenos Aires leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Cartagena 46: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Cartagena 33: Buenos Aires leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Cartagena 40: Buenos Aires leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Cartagena 54: Buenos Aires leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, Cartagena 48: Buenos Aires leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, Cartagena 60: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Cartagena 40: Buenos Aires leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Buenos Aires and Cartagena.

Your match

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

Buenos Aires
Best match
57match

Wins on live music and the arts and day trips with your weighting.

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 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
Buenos AiresCartagena

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresCartagena
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5
Emergency number117 or 911123
Elevation25 m2 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresCartagena
City population3,121,707914,552
People per km²15,3551,599
Museums within 10 km762
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Buenos Aires 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). 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. 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.