VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Cartagena or San Francisco?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Cartagena leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena and San Francisco are level on 68.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, San Francisco 58: Cartagena leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, San Francisco 14: Cartagena leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Cartagena
53match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts 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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaSan Francisco
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m16 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaSan Francisco
City population914,552873,965
People per km²1,5991,455
Museums within 10 km251
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or San Francisco 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.