VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Cartagena or Pattaya?

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
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’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, Pattaya 66: Cartagena leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Pattaya 58: Cartagena leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Pattaya 30: Cartagena leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Pattaya 40: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Pattaya 52: Pattaya leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Pattaya 55: Pattaya leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Pattaya 36: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Pattaya 42: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Pattaya 30: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 18 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cartagena
53match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Pattaya
52match

Wins on prices 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

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaPattaya

Where the figures come from

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaPattaya
Official languageSpanishThai
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number123Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation2 m35 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaPattaya
City population914,552119,532
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 Pattaya 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. 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.