VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Palms on a white beach at Cap Cana, Punta Cana
Punta CanaPalms on a white beach at Cap Cana

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Punta Cana by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, CC0.

Cartagena or Punta Cana?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Punta Cana for

  • families
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta Cana’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, Punta Cana 94: Punta Cana leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Punta Cana 30: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Punta Cana 8: Cartagena leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Punta Cana 40: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Punta Cana 52: Punta Cana leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Punta Cana 35: Punta Cana leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Punta Cana 68: Punta Cana leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Punta Cana 15: Cartagena leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Punta Cana 30: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Punta Cana 44: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Punta Cana 15: Cartagena leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Punta Cana 52: Punta Cana leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Punta Cana.

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 getting around with your weighting.

Punta Cana
40match

Wins on families and beaches 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

Punta Cana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
96 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
CartagenaPunta Cana

Where the figures come from

Punta Cana 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). Punta Cana: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Punta Cana (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaPunta Cana
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m28 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsPunta Cana International Airport (PUJ)1 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaPunta Cana
City population914,552138,919
People per km²1,599292
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 Punta Cana 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.