VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The Christuskirche among palms, Windhoek
WindhoekThe Christuskirche among palms

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Windhoek by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cartagena or Windhoek?

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
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Windhoek for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Windhoek’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, Windhoek 4: Cartagena leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Windhoek 36: Cartagena leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Windhoek 30: Cartagena leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Windhoek 25: Cartagena leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Windhoek 52: Windhoek leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Windhoek 14: Cartagena leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Windhoek 30: Cartagena leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Windhoek 22: Cartagena leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Windhoek 30: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Windhoek 62: Windhoek leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Windhoek 18: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, Windhoek 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 Windhoek.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Windhoek
29match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices 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

Windhoek in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaWindhoek

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Windhoek: 1991-2020 normals, Windhoek (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaWindhoek
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Namibia Dollar (NAD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2
Emergency number123112
Elevation2 m1,650 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsHosea Kutako International Airport (WDH)41 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaWindhoek
City population914,552486,169
People per km²1,59995
Museums within 10 km25
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 Windhoek 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.