VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Cartagena or Nuevo Vallarta?

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
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Nuevo Vallarta’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, Nuevo Vallarta 84: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Cartagena leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Cartagena leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Cartagena leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Cartagena leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Cartagena leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Nuevo Vallarta.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors 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

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaNuevo Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Nuevo Vallarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaNuevo Vallarta
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m3 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaNuevo Vallarta
City population914,5521,301
People per km²1,599-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Nuevo Vallarta 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.