VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The old town from the sea, Rovinj
RovinjThe old town from the sea

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rovinj by Vyacheslav Bukharov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Rovinj?

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

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Rovinj for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Rovinj’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 and Rovinj are level on 70.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Rovinj 50: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Rovinj 38: Cartagena leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Rovinj 25: Cartagena leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Rovinj 60: Rovinj leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Rovinj 68: Rovinj leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Rovinj 52: Rovinj leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Rovinj 55: Rovinj leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Rovinj 28: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Rovinj 36: Cartagena leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Rovinj 15: Cartagena leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Rovinj 42: Rovinj leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Rovinj.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

Rovinj
45match

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

Rovinj in July

29 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaRovinj

Where the figures come from

Rovinj's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Trieste.

Rovinj 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). Rovinj: 1991-2020 normals, Trieste (63.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaRovinj
Official languageSpanishCroatian
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m0 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsPula Airport (PUY)31 km from centre34 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaRovinj
City population914,55212,968
People per km²1,599-
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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