Cartagena Guide for Digital Nomads

Weather in Cartagena by month

The warmest month is July, at about 92°F (33°C) in the afternoon, and the coolest is January, at about 89°F (32°C).

The most rain falls in October.

From NOAA's monthly station summaries for Rafael Nunez, Co (5.3 km away), averaged over 2011 to 2025.

Internet in Cartagena

In M-Lab's open speed tests within 25 km of Cartagena, half came in above 41 Mbps download and 18 Mbps upload, and the fastest quarter of lines above 118 Mbps.

That's 95,045 download tests from September 2025 to September 2026.

The typical figure counts every line, cheap and mobile ones too; a fiber line in a good apartment or coworking space is closer to the fastest quarter.

Test yours when you get there with my internet speed test.

Cost of living in Cartagena

One person spends about $1,332 a month in Cartagena, with a furnished place to stay:

The rent is estimated from Colombia's housing prices, as Inside Airbnb doesn't cover Cartagena.

The rest is what a one-person US household spends (the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2024 survey), at Colombia's prices for each (the World Bank's 2021 price comparison).

Coworking, insurance and flights come on top.

Air quality in Cartagena

By an estimate, the air in Cartagena carries about 14 µg/m³ of fine particles (PM2.5) over a year, 2.9 times the WHO's guideline of 5 µg/m³.

The cleanest month is October, at about 8 µg/m³, and the haziest is July.

No open air quality station is within 25 km of Cartagena, so these are estimates from Copernicus's CAMS air model for the surrounding area (an 80 km grid, 2023 to 2025, CC BY 4.0), adjusted to what stations measure elsewhere.

Take them as a guide: the model can be well off in big cities, and a measured figure replaces it once a station opens.

Is Cartagena safe?

The US State Department rates Colombia Level 3 ("Reconsider travel", updated 2026-03-31).

Level 3 means the US asks you to reconsider the trip.

Some advisories raise the level for parts of a country, so read the full advisory before you book.

Work and stay in Cartagena

Where to work and live with other remote workers, from each finder:

See them all on a map, with hours, photos and directions, in the coworking space finder and free Wi-Fi spots.

Visas, taxes and residency in Colombia

Before you plan a long stay, check what your passport allows and what staying does to your taxes:

• Can you stay? – see where your passport goes without a visa on the visa-free countries map, and whether Colombia has a visa for remote workers in the digital nomad visa finder
• Tax – compare Colombia's income tax with other countries in tax rates by country
• Foreign income – Colombia taxes its tax residents on their income from anywhere; see the rule and its exceptions on the territorial tax map

Each tool reads the official rules, so the answer is for your own passport and income.

Money in Cartagena

A card with no foreign fee and an account that holds several currencies make a stay much cheaper:

• Accounts – the best bank accounts for digital nomads, by where you live
• Cards – what a card costs you abroad in the card fees abroad calculator
• Sending money – the cheapest way to move money there in the money transfer comparison

The finders show only accounts and cards you can open from where you live.

Time zone

Cartagena runs on Bogota time (America/Bogota).

See how many working hours you'd share with your clients or team in the time zone overlap calculator.