VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License.

Cartagena or Cork?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Cork for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Cork’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, Cork 25: Cartagena leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Cork 58: Cartagena leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Cork 40: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Cork 40: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Cork 62: Cork leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Cork 68: Cork leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Cork 50: Cork leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Cork 58: Cork leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Cork 40: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Cork 33: Cartagena leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Cork 45: Cork leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Cork 22: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Cork.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Cork
45match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors 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

Cork in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaCork

Where the figures come from

Cork's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Cork: 1991-2020 normals, Cork Airport (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaCork
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Irish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m0 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaCork
City population914,552222,333
People per km²1,5995,961
Museums within 10 km25
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Cork 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.