VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Ocho Rios?

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 Ocho Rios for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocho Rios’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, Ocho Rios 78: Ocho Rios leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Ocho Rios 42: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Ocho Rios 16: Cartagena leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Ocho Rios 28: Cartagena leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Ocho Rios 72: Ocho Rios leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Ocho Rios 56: Ocho Rios leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Ocho Rios 60: Ocho Rios leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Ocho Rios 24: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Ocho Rios 26: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Ocho Rios 42: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Ocho Rios 14: Cartagena leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Ocho Rios 50: Ocho Rios leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Ocho Rios.

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.

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Ocho Rios in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaOcho Rios

Where the figures come from

Ocho Rios's temperatures are measured 62 km from the centre, at Kingston / Norman Manley.

Ocho Rios 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). Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaOcho Rios
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number123Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation2 m59 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaOcho Rios
City population914,55216,671
People per km²1,599-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Ocho Rios 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.