VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
La Paz

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

Cartagena or La Paz?

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
  • families

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

Choose La Paz for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on La Paz’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, La Paz 3: Cartagena leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, La Paz 50: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, La Paz 52: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, La Paz 38: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, La Paz 82: La Paz leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, La Paz 40: La Paz leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, La Paz 10: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, La Paz 45: Cartagena leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, La Paz 45: Cartagena leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, La Paz 92: La Paz leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, La Paz 35: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, La Paz 12: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
0255075100

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

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 nightlife with your weighting.

La Paz
42match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices 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

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaLa Paz

Where the figures come from

La Paz has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaLa Paz
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Boliviano (BOB)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAC50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m3,640 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaLa Paz
City population914,552755,732
People per km²1,5991,601
Museums within 10 km221
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 La Paz 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.