VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • 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. Cape Town 58, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Cartagena 62: Cape Town leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Cartagena 68: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Cartagena 46: Cape Town leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Cartagena 33: Cape Town leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Cartagena 40: Cape Town leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Cartagena 54: Cartagena leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Cartagena 48: Cape Town leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Cartagena 60: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Cartagena 40: Cape Town leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Cartagena 40: Cape Town leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Cartagena.

Your match

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

Cape Town
Best match
61match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Cartagena
53match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °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
Cape TownCartagena

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownCartagena
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation5 m2 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownCartagena
City population3,776,313914,552
People per km²1,5381,599
Museums within 10 km222
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
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 Cape Town 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.