VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Myrtle Beach?

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
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose Myrtle Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Myrtle Beach’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, Myrtle Beach 84: Myrtle Beach leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Myrtle Beach 38: Cartagena leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Myrtle Beach 20: Cartagena leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Myrtle Beach 42: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena and Myrtle Beach are level on 46.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Myrtle Beach 50: Myrtle Beach leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Myrtle Beach 80: Myrtle Beach leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Myrtle Beach 18: Cartagena leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Myrtle Beach 38: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Myrtle Beach 52: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Myrtle Beach 30: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Myrtle Beach 28: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Myrtle Beach.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Myrtle Beach
44match

Wins on families 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

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaMyrtle Beach

Where the figures come from

Myrtle Beach 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaMyrtle Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m8 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaMyrtle Beach
City population914,55235,682
People per km²1,599591
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Myrtle Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.