VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Punta del Este

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

Cartagena or Punta del Este?

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
  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • families
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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 del Este 72: Punta del Este leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Punta del Este 45: Cartagena leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Punta del Este 22: Cartagena leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Punta del Este 60: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Punta del Este 55: Punta del Este leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Punta del Este 55: Punta del Este leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Punta del Este 35: Cartagena leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Punta del Este 42: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Punta del Este 20: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Punta del Este 22: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Punta del Este 32: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Punta del Este.

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 prices with your weighting.

Punta del Este
42match

Wins on families 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

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaPunta del Este

Where the figures come from

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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 del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaPunta del Este
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m11 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaPunta del Este
City population914,5529,277
People per km²1,599455
Museums within 10 km25
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Punta del Este 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.