VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Cloth Hall on the Main Square, Krakow
KrakowThe Cloth Hall on the Main Square

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Krakow by Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Krakow?

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
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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

Choose Krakow for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Krakow’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, Krakow 9: Cartagena leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Krakow 55: Cartagena leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Krakow 77: Krakow leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Krakow 68: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Krakow 62: Krakow leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Krakow 76: Krakow leads by 43 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Krakow 58: Krakow leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Krakow 74: Krakow leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena and Krakow are level on 48.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Krakow 72: Krakow leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Krakow 55: Krakow leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Krakow 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 Krakow.

Your match

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

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Krakow
Best match
58match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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

Krakow in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
100 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaKrakow

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Krakow: 1991-2020 normals, Krakow (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaKrakow
Official languageSpanishPolish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m219 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsKraków John Paul II International Airport (KRK)11 km from centre132 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaKrakow
City population914,552804,237
People per km²1,5992,459
Museums within 10 km2113
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
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 Krakow 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.