VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Cartagena or Lucerne?

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

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Lucerne’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, Lucerne 35: Cartagena leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Lucerne 35: Cartagena leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Lucerne 58: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Lucerne 28: Cartagena leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Lucerne 46: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Lucerne 8: Cartagena leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

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 prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Lucerne
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 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
CartagenaLucerne

Where the figures come from

Lucerne 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.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaLucerne
Official languageSpanishFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m436 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaLucerne
City population914,55286,234
People per km²1,5992,963
Museums within 10 km214
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 Lucerne 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. 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.