VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Durban

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Durban?

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

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Durban for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Durban’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, Durban 80: Durban leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Durban 60: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Durban 38: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Durban 40: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Durban 68: Durban leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Durban 38: Durban leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Durban 60: Durban leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Durban 20: Cartagena leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Durban 42: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Durban 72: Durban leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena and Durban are level on 40.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Durban 30: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Durban.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Durban
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Durban in July

23 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaDurban

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaDurban
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m22 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaDurban
City population914,552595,061
People per km²1,5992,634
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Durban 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.