VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The white temple of Wat Kaew Korawaram in Krabi Town, Krabi
KrabiThe white temple of Wat Kaew Korawaram in Krabi Town

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Krabi by Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Krabi?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Krabi for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Krabi’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, Krabi 87: Krabi leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Krabi 50: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Krabi 20: Cartagena leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Krabi 33: Cartagena leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Krabi 85: Krabi leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Krabi 40: Krabi leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Krabi 55: Krabi leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Krabi 30: Cartagena leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Krabi 20: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Krabi 78: Krabi leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Krabi 12: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Krabi 72: Krabi leads by 32 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Krabi
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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

Krabi in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
212 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaKrabi

Where the figures come from

Krabi's temperatures are measured 67 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Krabi 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). Krabi: 1991-2020 normals, Phuket Airport (66.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaKrabi
Official languageSpanishThai
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number123Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation2 m16 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsKrabi International Airport (KBV)9 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaKrabi
City population914,55230,499
People per km²1,599-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Krabi 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.