VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Cartagena or La Spezia?

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

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on La Spezia’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 Spezia 60: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, La Spezia 58: Cartagena leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, La Spezia 40: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, La Spezia 28: Cartagena leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, La Spezia 87: La Spezia leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, La Spezia 48: La Spezia leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, La Spezia 70: La Spezia leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, La Spezia 35: Cartagena leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, La Spezia 50: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, La Spezia 28: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, La Spezia 32: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cartagena
53match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

La Spezia
51match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors 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 Spezia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
20 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaLa Spezia

Where the figures come from

La Spezia's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

La Spezia 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). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaLa Spezia
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m3 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaLa Spezia
City population914,55292,119
People per km²1,5991,792
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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