VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cartagena or San Jose?

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
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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 Jose 30: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, San Jose 56: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, San Jose 36: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, San Jose 33: Cartagena leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, San Jose 30: Cartagena leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena and San Jose are level on 48.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, San Jose 20: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, San Jose 38: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, San Jose 30: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and San Jose.

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 prices with your weighting.

San Jose
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

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaSan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaSan Jose
City population914,5521,013,240
People per km²1,5992,167
Museums within 10 km219
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 Jose 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.