VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Melbourne?

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
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Melbourne for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Melbourne’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, Melbourne 50: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Melbourne 57: Cartagena leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Melbourne 62: Melbourne leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Melbourne 73: Melbourne leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Melbourne 76: Melbourne leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Melbourne 31: Cartagena leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Melbourne 72: Melbourne leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Melbourne 54: Melbourne leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Melbourne.

Your match

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

Cartagena
53match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on families and live music and the arts 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

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaMelbourne

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaMelbourne
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number123000
Elevation2 m31 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaMelbourne
City population914,5525,350,705
People per km²1,599535
Museums within 10 km243
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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