VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Interlaken?

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
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Interlaken for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Interlaken’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, Interlaken 30: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Interlaken 25: Cartagena leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Interlaken 8: Cartagena leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Interlaken 15: Cartagena leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Interlaken 97: Interlaken leads by 51 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Interlaken 78: Interlaken leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Interlaken 72: Interlaken leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Interlaken 80: Interlaken leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Interlaken 22: Cartagena leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Interlaken 8: Cartagena leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Interlaken 15: Cartagena leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena and Interlaken are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Interlaken.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Interlaken
41match

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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaInterlaken

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaInterlaken
Official languageSpanishFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m571 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaInterlaken
City population914,5526,123
People per km²1,5991,424
Museums within 10 km23
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 Interlaken 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.