VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Sao Paulo?

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
  • wellness
  • getting around

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Sao Paulo 60: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Sao Paulo 48: Sao Paulo leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Sao Paulo 47: Sao Paulo leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Sao Paulo 52: Sao Paulo leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Sao Paulo 44: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Sao Paulo 25: Cartagena leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Cartagena
53match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink 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

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaSao Paulo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaSao Paulo
Official languageSpanishPortuguese
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency number123Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation2 m760 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaSao Paulo
City population914,55211,451,999
People per km²1,5997,519
Museums within 10 km290
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 Sao Paulo 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.