VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; London by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Cartagena or London?

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
  • prices

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

Choose London for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on London’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, London 25: Cartagena leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, London 84: London leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, London 94: London leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, London 88: London leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, London 57: London leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, London 90: London leads by 57 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, London 82: London leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, London 85: London leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, London 95: London leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, London 15: Cartagena leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, London 98: London leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena and London are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and London.

Your match

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

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

London
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and day trips 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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaLondon

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaLondon
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number123112 or 999
Elevation2 m4 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaLondon
City population914,5528,799,728
People per km²1,5995,598
Museums within 10 km2216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
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 London 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.