VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Cartagena or Wellington?

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
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Cartagena leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena and Wellington are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Wellington 44: Cartagena leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Wellington 45: Cartagena leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Wellington 40: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Wellington 42: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Wellington 33: Cartagena leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Wellington 30: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Wellington.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number123111
Elevation2 m0 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaWellington
City population914,552216,200
People per km²1,599487
Museums within 10 km212
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 Wellington 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.