TravelCityIndex
HomeCheapestSafestBest timeMethodology
TravelCityIndex

One page of sourced numbers per city: what a day costs, what the travel advisory says, and which months score best on the weather.

Data: GeoNames, Open-Meteo, World Bank, US State Department, UK FCDO.

Site

  • About
  • Sources
  • Methodology
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Contact
© 2026 Travel City Index. Every number on this site comes from a dataset named on the page that shows it.
  1. Home
  2. /Cartagena
  3. /Cartagena vs Lima

Colombia · Peru

Cartagena vs Lima: cost, safety and weather compared (2026)

Every figure below comes from the same datasets for both cities, so the two columns are comparable.

Cartagena and Lima compared on cost, safety, weather and size
CartagenaColombiaLimaPeru
Daily cost, per personestimate
Budget$35$60
Mid-range$80$140
Luxury$170$300
Price level0.38× US (2025)0.51× US (2025)
US advisoryLevel 3Level 2
Best monthsJan, Feb, Mar and AprJan, Feb, Mar and Apr
Annual rain1,345 mm57 mm
Average high31.3 °C22.0 °C
Population915K7.7M
Time zoneAmerica/BogotaAmerica/Lima

The short answer

Cartagena is about 43 % cheaper per day than Lima, $80 against $140 (mid-range estimate). Lima has the lower US advisory level (2 vs 3). In September, the daily average is 28 °C in Cartagena and 17 °C in Lima.

Keep reading

City overviews

  • Cartagena overview
  • Lima overview

Cost and safety in detail

  • Cartagena trip cost
  • Is Cartagena safe?
  • Lima trip cost
  • Is Lima safe?

Where they rank

  • Cheapest cities in South America
  • Safest cities in South America

Countries

  • All cities in Colombia
  • All cities in Peru

Sources

  • GeoNames city database — CC BY 4.0, fetched September 14, 2026
  • Open-Meteo climate archive — CC BY 4.0, fetched September 21, 2026
  • World Bank price level and exchange rate — CC BY 4.0, data year 2025
  • US State Department travel advisories — public domain, fetched September 21, 2026

Dates are the most recent fetch across the cities on this page. Every sentence here is generated from the data by rule, with no AI writing; the formulas are public.