VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Santa Barbara?

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
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Barbara for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Barbara’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, Santa Barbara 60: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena and Santa Barbara are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Santa Barbara 48: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Santa Barbara 34: Cartagena leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Santa Barbara 80: Santa Barbara leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Santa Barbara 55: Santa Barbara leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Santa Barbara 64: Santa Barbara leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Santa Barbara 46: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Santa Barbara 45: Cartagena leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Santa Barbara 15: Cartagena leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Santa Barbara 50: Santa Barbara leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Santa Barbara.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cartagena
53match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
51match

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

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaSanta Barbara

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaSanta Barbara
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 m15 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaSanta Barbara
City population914,55288,665
People per km²1,599816
Museums within 10 km210
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 Santa Barbara 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.