VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cartagena or San Miguel de Allende?

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
  • prices

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’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 Miguel de Allende 4: Cartagena leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena and San Miguel de Allende are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, San Miguel de Allende 62: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, San Miguel de Allende 38: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, San Miguel de Allende 40: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, San Miguel de Allende 32: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, San Miguel de Allende 48: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, San Miguel de Allende 50: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena and San Miguel de Allende are level on 40.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and San Miguel de Allende.

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.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on day trips and wellness 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 Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaSan Miguel de Allende

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m1,900 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaSan Miguel de Allende
City population914,55269,811
People per km²1,599-
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 San Miguel de Allende 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.