VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, Venice
VeniceThe Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Venice by David Vives, Pexels License.

Cartagena or Venice?

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
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Venice for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Venice’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, Venice 56: Cartagena leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Venice 60: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Venice 94: Venice leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Venice 27: Cartagena leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Venice 45: Cartagena leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Venice 86: Venice leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Venice 45: Venice leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Venice 68: Venice leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Venice 57: Venice leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Venice 20: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Venice 62: Venice leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena and Venice are level on 40.
0255075100

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

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 nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Venice
55match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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

Venice in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
61 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaVenice

Where the figures come from

Venice 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.

Venice's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Treviso / S. Angelo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Venezia / Tessera (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaVenice
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 m2 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre103 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaVenice
City population914,552250,369
People per km²1,599602
Museums within 10 km252
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or Venice 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.