VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License.

Cartagena or Huntington Beach?

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

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose Huntington Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Huntington Beach’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 and Huntington Beach are level on 70.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Huntington Beach 46: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Huntington Beach 14: Cartagena leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Huntington Beach 38: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Huntington Beach 58: Huntington Beach leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Huntington Beach 63: Huntington Beach leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Huntington Beach 82: Huntington Beach leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Huntington Beach 20: Cartagena leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Huntington Beach 42: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Huntington Beach 28: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Huntington Beach 33: Cartagena leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Huntington Beach 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 Huntington Beach.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on families 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

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaHuntington Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaHuntington Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m12 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaHuntington Beach
City population914,552198,711
People per km²1,5992,406
Museums within 10 km23
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 Huntington Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.