VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Sorrento?

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

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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, Sorrento 60: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Sorrento 60: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Sorrento 32: Cartagena leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Sorrento 28: Cartagena leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Sorrento 80: Sorrento leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 62 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Sorrento 42: Sorrento leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Sorrento 58: Sorrento leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Sorrento 38: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Sorrento 32: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Sorrento 20: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Sorrento 48: Sorrento leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Sorrento.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sorrento
49match

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

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaSorrento

Where the figures come from

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaSorrento
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m50 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaSorrento
City population914,55215,407
People per km²1,5991,541
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Sorrento 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.