VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The arch at the entrance to the boardwalk, Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, MarylandThe arch at the entrance to the boardwalk

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ocean City, Maryland by Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Ocean City, Maryland?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Ocean City, Maryland for

  • families
  • day trips
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocean City, Maryland’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, Ocean City, Maryland 78: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Ocean City, Maryland 40: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Ocean City, Maryland 14: Cartagena leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Ocean City, Maryland 45: Cartagena leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Ocean City, Maryland 50: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Ocean City, Maryland 42: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Ocean City, Maryland 78: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Ocean City, Maryland 34: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Ocean City, Maryland 24: Cartagena leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Ocean City, Maryland 40: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Ocean City, Maryland 18: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Ocean City, Maryland 22: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Ocean City, Maryland.

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.

Ocean City, Maryland
40match

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

Ocean City, Maryland in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaOcean City, Maryland

Where the figures come from

Ocean City, Maryland 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). Ocean City, Maryland: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Ocean City / Morris Mobile Home Park (10.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaOcean City, Maryland
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 m2 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)39 km from centre4 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaOcean City, Maryland
City population914,5526,844
People per km²1,59973
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Ocean City, Maryland 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.