VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Plovdiv?

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
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Plovdiv for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Plovdiv’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, Plovdiv 7: Cartagena leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Plovdiv 50: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Plovdiv 66: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Plovdiv 42: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Plovdiv 68: Plovdiv leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Plovdiv 70: Plovdiv leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Cartagena and Plovdiv are level on 40.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Plovdiv 65: Plovdiv leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Plovdiv 33: Cartagena leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Plovdiv 78: Plovdiv leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Plovdiv 44: Plovdiv leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Plovdiv.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Plovdiv
50match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors 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

Plovdiv in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaPlovdiv

Where the figures come from

Plovdiv 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.

Plovdiv's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Kurdjali.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaPlovdiv
Official languageSpanishBulgarian
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m172 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaPlovdiv
City population914,552333,994
People per km²1,5993,274
Museums within 10 km218
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Plovdiv 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.