VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Fort Lovrijenac above the sea, Dubrovnik
DubrovnikFort Lovrijenac above the sea

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Dubrovnik by Natalia Semenova, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Dubrovnik?

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

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Dubrovnik for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Dubrovnik’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, Dubrovnik 74: Dubrovnik leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Dubrovnik 47: Cartagena leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Dubrovnik 72: Dubrovnik leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Dubrovnik 37: Cartagena leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Dubrovnik 70: Dubrovnik leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Dubrovnik 66: Dubrovnik leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Dubrovnik 50: Dubrovnik leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Dubrovnik 60: Dubrovnik leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Dubrovnik 25: Cartagena leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Dubrovnik 28: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Dubrovnik 25: Cartagena leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Dubrovnik 32: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Dubrovnik.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Dubrovnik
49match

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

Dubrovnik in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
29 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaDubrovnik

Where the figures come from

Dubrovnik 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.

Dubrovnik's sunshine is measured 83 km from the centre, at Mostar.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Dubrovnik: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dubrovnik / Cilipi (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaDubrovnik
Official languageSpanishCroatian
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m10 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsDubrovnik Ruđer Bošković Airport (DBV)16 km from centre76 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaDubrovnik
City population914,55241,562
People per km²1,599-
Museums within 10 km27
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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