VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Newport 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
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport 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 and Newport Beach are level on 70.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Newport Beach 50: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Newport Beach 20: Cartagena leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Newport Beach 33: Cartagena leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Newport Beach 20: Cartagena leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Newport Beach 15: Cartagena leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Newport Beach 46: Newport Beach leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Newport Beach 44: Newport Beach leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Newport 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 prices with your weighting.

Newport Beach
48match

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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaNewport Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m3 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaNewport Beach
City population914,55285,239
People per km²1,599622
Museums within 10 km24
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Newport 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.