VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or New York?

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

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

Choose New York for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, New York 92: New York leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, New York 89: New York leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, New York 97: New York leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, New York 55: New York leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, New York 68: New York leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, New York 70: New York leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, New York 82: New York leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, New York 97: New York leads by 49 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, New York 12: Cartagena leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, New York 99: New York leads by 59 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, New York 42: New York leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and New York.

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.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping 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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaNew York

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaNew York
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 m25 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaNew York
City population914,5528,804,190
People per km²1,5997,256
Museums within 10 km2157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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