VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cartagena or York?

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
  • prices

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

Choose York for

  • day trips
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Cartagena leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, York 42: Cartagena leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, York 70: York leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, York 36: Cartagena leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, York 62: York leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, York 80: York leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, York 60: York leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, York 72: York leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, York 46: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, York 38: Cartagena leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, York 38: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena 40, York 34: Cartagena leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and York.

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.

York
49match

Wins on day trips 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaYork
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number123112 or 999
Elevation2 m25 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaYork
City population914,552208,400
People per km²1,599766
Museums within 10 km224
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 York 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.