VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Las Vegas?

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
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Las Vegas for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Las Vegas’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, Las Vegas 10: Cartagena leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Las Vegas 68: Las Vegas leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Las Vegas 25: Cartagena leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Las Vegas 88: Las Vegas leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Las Vegas 68: Las Vegas leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Las Vegas 25: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Las Vegas 25: Cartagena leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Las Vegas 38: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Las Vegas 64: Las Vegas leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Las Vegas 35: Cartagena leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Las Vegas 78: Las Vegas leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena and Las Vegas are level on 40.
0255075100

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

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaLas Vegas

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaLas Vegas
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m610 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaLas Vegas
City population914,552641,903
People per km²1,5991,843
Museums within 10 km221
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Las Vegas 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.