VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Ross Castle on Lough Leane, Killarney
KillarneyRoss Castle on Lough Leane

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Killarney by NicholasH, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Killarney?

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
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Killarney for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Killarney’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, Killarney 22: Cartagena leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Killarney 33: Cartagena leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Killarney 28: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Killarney 32: Cartagena leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Killarney 82: Killarney leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Killarney 58: Killarney leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Killarney 42: Killarney leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Killarney 47: Cartagena leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Killarney 22: Cartagena leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Killarney 35: Cartagena leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Killarney 35: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Killarney 42: Killarney leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Killarney.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Killarney
40match

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

Killarney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
88 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaKillarney

Where the figures come from

Killarney's temperatures are measured 53 km from the centre, at Valentia Observatory.

Killarney 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). Killarney: 1991-2020 normals, Valentia Observatory (52.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaKillarney
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Irish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m50 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsKerry Airport (KIR)14 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaKillarney
City population914,55214,412
People per km²1,599-
Museums within 10 km21
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 Killarney 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.