VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Destin?

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

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Destin for

  • families
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Destin’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, Destin 86: Destin leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Destin 42: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Destin 14: Cartagena leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Destin 36: Cartagena leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Destin 56: Destin leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Destin 44: Destin leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Destin 72: Destin leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Destin 20: Cartagena leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Destin 40: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Destin 34: Cartagena leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Destin 20: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Destin 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 Destin.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Destin
41match

Wins on families 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.

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

Destin in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaDestin

Where the figures come from

Destin has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Destin: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Destin (0.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaDestin
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 m8 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaDestin
City population914,55213,931
People per km²1,599636
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Destin 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.