VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Paphos?

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

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Paphos for

  • day trips
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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, Paphos 76: Paphos leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Paphos 45: Cartagena leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Paphos 62: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Paphos 38: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Paphos 70: Paphos leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Paphos 64: Paphos leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Paphos 40: Cartagena leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Paphos 25: Cartagena leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Paphos 52: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Paphos 22: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Paphos 42: Paphos leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Paphos.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Paphos
50match

Wins on day trips and families 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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaPaphos

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaPaphos
Official languageSpanishTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m72 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaPaphos
City population914,55235,961
People per km²1,5991,987
Museums within 10 km24
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Paphos 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.