VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Porto?

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
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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

Choose Porto for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Porto’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, Porto 40: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Porto 70: Porto leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena and Porto are level on 68.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Porto 65: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Porto 64: Porto leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Porto 79: Porto leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Porto 52: Porto leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Porto 66: Porto leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Porto 52: Porto leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Porto 62: Porto leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Porto 52: Porto leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Porto 34: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Porto.

Your match

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

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Porto
Best match
59match

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

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaPorto

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaPorto
Official languageSpanishPortuguese
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m104 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaPorto
City population914,552273,476
People per km²1,5996,606
Museums within 10 km242
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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