VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License.

Cartagena or Chicago?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Chicago for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Chicago’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, Chicago 50: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Chicago 80: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Chicago 78: Chicago leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Chicago 77: Chicago leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Chicago 48: Chicago leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Chicago 42: Chicago leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Chicago 78: Chicago leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Chicago 72: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Chicago 70: Chicago leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Chicago 33: Cartagena leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Chicago 82: Chicago leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Chicago 33: Cartagena leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Chicago.

Your match

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

Cartagena
53match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and families 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

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaChicago

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaChicago
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m179 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaChicago
City population914,5522,746,388
People per km²1,5994,529
Museums within 10 km244
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Chicago 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.