VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas

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

Cartagena or Guadalajara?

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
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Guadalajara for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Guadalajara’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, Guadalajara 5: Cartagena leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Guadalajara 75: Guadalajara leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Guadalajara 62: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Guadalajara 68: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Guadalajara 55: Guadalajara leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Guadalajara 66: Guadalajara leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Guadalajara 55: Guadalajara leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Guadalajara 40: Cartagena leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Guadalajara 78: Guadalajara leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Guadalajara 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 Guadalajara.

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 getting around with your weighting.

Guadalajara
55match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaGuadalajara

Where the figures come from

Guadalajara has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaGuadalajara
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m1,536 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaGuadalajara
City population914,5521,385,621
People per km²1,5999,556
Museums within 10 km217
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Guadalajara 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.