VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Salt Lake City?

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
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’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, Salt Lake City 12: Cartagena leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Salt Lake City 40: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Salt Lake City 42: Cartagena leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Salt Lake City 30: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Salt Lake City 34: Salt Lake City leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Salt Lake City 72: Salt Lake City leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Salt Lake City 42: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Salt Lake City 36: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Salt Lake City 40: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Salt Lake City 55: Salt Lake City leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Salt Lake City 38: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Salt Lake City.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

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

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaSalt Lake City

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaSalt Lake City
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m1,288 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaSalt Lake City
City population914,552199,723
People per km²1,599690
Museums within 10 km212
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Salt Lake City 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.