VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
A galleon on the Motława below the old crane, Gdansk
GdanskA galleon on the Motława below the old crane

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Gdansk by Nikater, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Gdansk?

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
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Gdansk for

  • day trips
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Gdansk’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, Gdansk 40: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Gdansk 50: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena and Gdansk are level on 68.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Gdansk 52: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Gdansk 58: Gdansk leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Gdansk 62: Gdansk leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Gdansk 62: Gdansk leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Gdansk 72: Gdansk leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Gdansk 42: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Gdansk 68: Gdansk leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Gdansk 52: Gdansk leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Gdansk 36: Cartagena leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Gdansk.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Gdansk
55match

Wins on day trips 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

Gdansk in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaGdansk

Where the figures come from

Gdansk 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.

Gdansk's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Elblag.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaGdansk
Official languageSpanishPolish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m11 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsGdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre72 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaGdansk
City population914,552487,834
People per km²1,599714
Museums within 10 km234
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Gdansk 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.