VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Cartagena or Kyoto?

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
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Kyoto’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, Kyoto 15: Cartagena leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Kyoto 35: Cartagena leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Kyoto 50: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips 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

Kyoto in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
225 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaKyoto

Where the figures come from

Kyoto's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Osaka.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaKyoto
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+9
Emergency number123Police 110, fire 119
Elevation2 m51 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaKyoto
City population914,5521,463,723
People per km²1,5991,768
Museums within 10 km277
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Kyoto 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.