VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Cartagena or Hiroshima?

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 Hiroshima for

  • day trips
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Hiroshima’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, Hiroshima 30: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Hiroshima 66: Hiroshima leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Hiroshima 60: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Hiroshima 45: Cartagena leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Hiroshima 62: Hiroshima leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Hiroshima 80: Hiroshima leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Hiroshima 60: Hiroshima leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Hiroshima 74: Hiroshima leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Hiroshima 52: Hiroshima leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Hiroshima 58: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Hiroshima 38: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Hiroshima 50: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Hiroshima.

Your match

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

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

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

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaHiroshima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaHiroshima
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+9
Emergency number123Police 110, fire 119
Elevation2 m3 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaHiroshima
City population914,5521,198,021
People per km²1,5991,324
Museums within 10 km218
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Hiroshima 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.