VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Cartagena or Puerto Plata?

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
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Plata’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, Puerto Plata 80: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Puerto Plata 40: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Puerto Plata 35: Cartagena leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Puerto Plata 38: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Puerto Plata 48: Puerto Plata leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Puerto Plata 30: Cartagena leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Puerto Plata 30: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Puerto Plata 18: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Puerto Plata 35: Cartagena leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families 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

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Puerto Plata 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaPuerto Plata
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m34 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaPuerto Plata
City population914,552-
People per km²1,599-
Museums within 10 km21
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 Puerto Plata 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.