VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Montreal?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Montreal for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Montreal’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, Montreal 25: Cartagena leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Montreal 78: Montreal leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Montreal 60: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Montreal 75: Montreal leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Montreal 66: Montreal leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Montreal 55: Montreal leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Montreal 68: Montreal leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Montreal 72: Montreal leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Montreal 60: Montreal leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Montreal 45: Cartagena leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Montreal 76: Montreal leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Montreal 57: Montreal leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Montreal.

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.

Montreal
Best match
61match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Montreal in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
98 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaMontreal

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaMontreal
Official languageSpanishFrench, English
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m31 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaMontreal
City population914,5521,895,211
People per km²1,5993,806
Museums within 10 km237
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 Montreal 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.