VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro, Paris
ParisThe Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Paris by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Cartagena or Paris?

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

  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Paris for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Paris’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, Paris 9: Cartagena leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Paris 96: Paris leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Paris 97: Paris leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Paris 80: Paris leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Paris 52: Paris leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Paris 92: Paris leads by 59 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Paris 79: Paris leads by 39 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Paris 88: Paris leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Paris 98: Paris leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Paris 25: Cartagena leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Paris 88: Paris leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena and Paris are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Paris.

Your match

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

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Paris
Best match
70match

Wins on day trips and shopping 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

Paris in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaParis

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaParis
Official languageSpanishFrench
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m27 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsCharles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaParis
City population914,5522,103,778
People per km²1,59919,960
Museums within 10 km2251
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Paris 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.