VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre, Fort Myers
Fort MyersThe 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Fort Myers by Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Fort Myers?

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
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Fort Myers for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Fort Myers’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, Fort Myers 77: Fort Myers leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Fort Myers 40: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Fort Myers 32: Cartagena leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Fort Myers 32: Cartagena leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Fort Myers 63: Fort Myers leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Fort Myers 50: Fort Myers leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Fort Myers 62: Fort Myers leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Fort Myers 15: Cartagena leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Fort Myers 38: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Fort Myers 38: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Fort Myers 36: Cartagena leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Fort Myers 35: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Fort Myers.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Fort Myers
43match

Wins on families 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

Fort Myers in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
220 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaFort Myers

Where the figures come from

Fort Myers 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). Fort Myers: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Myers / Page Park (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaFort Myers
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m3 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsSouthwest Florida International Airport (RSW)12 km from centre79 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaFort Myers
City population914,55286,395
People per km²1,599681
Museums within 10 km23
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months10 months

Where else could you go?

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