VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Wat Chiang Man in the old city, Chiang Mai
Chiang MaiWat Chiang Man in the old city

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Chiang Mai by Gije Cho, Pexels License.

Cartagena or Chiang Mai?

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 Cartagena for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Chiang Mai for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Chiang Mai’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. Cartagena 70, Chiang Mai 6: Cartagena leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Chiang Mai 78: Chiang Mai leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Chiang Mai 65: Cartagena leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Chiang Mai 45: Cartagena leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Chiang Mai 73: Chiang Mai leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Chiang Mai 48: Chiang Mai leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Chiang Mai 55: Chiang Mai leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Chiang Mai 38: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Chiang Mai 62: Chiang Mai leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Chiang Mai 90: Chiang Mai leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Chiang Mai 30: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Chiang Mai 82: Chiang Mai leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Chiang Mai.

Your match

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

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Chiang Mai
Best match
56match

Wins on wellness 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.

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

Chiang Mai in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaChiang Mai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Chiang Mai: 1991-2020 normals, Chiang Mai (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaChiang Mai
Official languageSpanishThai
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number123Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation2 m310 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsChiang Mai International Airport (CNX)3 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaChiang Mai
City population914,5521,198,000
People per km²1,5992,958
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Chiang Mai 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.