VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Virginia Beach?

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

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Virginia Beach leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Virginia Beach 42: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Virginia Beach 30: Cartagena leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Virginia Beach 37: Cartagena leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Virginia Beach 56: Virginia Beach leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Virginia Beach 64: Virginia Beach leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Virginia Beach 27: Cartagena leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Virginia Beach 32: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Virginia Beach 40: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Virginia Beach 38: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Virginia Beach 32: Cartagena leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on families and day trips 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

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaVirginia Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaVirginia Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m7 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaVirginia Beach
City population914,552459,470
People per km²1,599-
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Virginia Beach 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.