VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0.

Cartagena or Limassol?

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

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Limassol for

  • day trips
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Limassol’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, Limassol 77: Limassol leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Limassol 58: Cartagena leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Limassol 38: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Limassol 50: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Limassol 65: Limassol leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Limassol 76: Limassol leads by 43 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Limassol 63: Limassol leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Limassol 38: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Limassol 42: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Limassol 44: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Limassol 32: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Limassol 42: Limassol leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Limassol.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cartagena
53match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Limassol
52match

Wins on day trips and families 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

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaLimassol

Where the figures come from

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaLimassol
Official languageSpanishTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m10 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaLimassol
City population914,552107,970
People per km²1,5992,405
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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