VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
Palms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach
West Palm BeachPalms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or West Palm 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

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose West Palm Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm 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, West Palm Beach 80: West Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, West Palm Beach 52: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, West Palm Beach 42: Cartagena leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, West Palm Beach 36: Cartagena leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, West Palm Beach 58: West Palm Beach leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, West Palm Beach 55: West Palm Beach leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, West Palm Beach 66: West Palm Beach leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, West Palm Beach 38: Cartagena leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, West Palm Beach 64: West Palm Beach leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, West Palm Beach 23: Cartagena leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, West Palm Beach 47: West Palm Beach leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, West Palm Beach 44: West Palm Beach leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and West Palm Beach.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

West Palm Beach
50match

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

West Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaWest Palm Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaWest Palm 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 m6 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaWest Palm Beach
City population914,552117,415
People per km²1,599786
Museums within 10 km24
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cartagena or West Palm 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.