VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

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

Cartagena or Galway?

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
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Galway for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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, Galway 28: Cartagena leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Galway 45: Cartagena leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Galway 33: Cartagena leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Galway 50: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Galway 78: Galway leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Galway 56: Galway leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Galway 42: Galway leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Galway 58: Galway leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Galway 38: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Galway 28: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Galway 57: Galway leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Galway 28: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Galway.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Galway
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaGalway

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaGalway
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 m25 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaGalway
City population914,55283,456
People per km²1,5991,563
Museums within 10 km24
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 Galway 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.