VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
A chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain, Whistler
WhistlerA chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Whistler by Ruth Hartnup, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Whistler?

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
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Whistler for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Whistler’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, Whistler 30: Cartagena leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Whistler 40: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Whistler 20: Cartagena leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Whistler 42: Cartagena leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Whistler 97: Whistler leads by 51 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Whistler 30: Cartagena leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Whistler 30: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Whistler 12: Cartagena leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Whistler 15: Cartagena leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Whistler 60: Whistler leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Whistler.

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 prices with your weighting.

Whistler
43match

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

Whistler in July

25 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaWhistler

Where the figures come from

Whistler 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Whistler: 1991-2020 normals, Whistler - Nesters (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaWhistler
Official languageSpanishFrench, English
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation2 m670 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)104 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaWhistler
City population914,55213,982
People per km²1,59958
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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