VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Guilin?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Guilin for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Guilin’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, Guilin 8: Cartagena leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Guilin 45: Cartagena leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Guilin 40: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Guilin 30: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Guilin 88: Guilin leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Guilin 56: Guilin leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Guilin 45: Guilin leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Guilin 45: Cartagena leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Guilin 28: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Guilin 78: Guilin leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Guilin 30: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena and Guilin are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Guilin.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Guilin
44match

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

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaGuilin

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaGuilin
Official languageSpanishPutonghua
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number123Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation2 m153 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaGuilin
City population914,5524,931,137
People per km²1,599-
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Guilin 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.