VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

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

Cartagena or Portland?

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
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Portland for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Cartagena leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Portland 68: Portland leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Portland 38: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Portland 52: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Portland 84: Portland leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Portland 58: Portland leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Portland 55: Portland leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Portland 62: Portland leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Portland 52: Portland leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Portland 38: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Portland 55: Portland leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Portland 42: Portland leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Portland.

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 beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portland
52match

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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaPortland

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaPortland
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m152 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaPortland
City population914,552652,503
People per km²1,5991,736
Museums within 10 km217
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 Portland 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.