Cartagena (Spain)

Introduction

Cartagena, historical centre

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Cartagena is a city in the Murcia Region in the southeast of Spain and has around 212,000 inhabitants, making the 24th largest city in the country, though the second in the region.

Weather

Cartagena has a typical Meditarranean climate with warm, sunny and dry summers and mild but wetter winters. Average summer temperatures from June to early September are typically around 30 °C though can hit 40 °C or more sometimes. Nights are warm, mostly around or just above 20 °C. Winters from December to February are mostly around 15 °C during the day and nights can be chilly but rarely really cold.

Getting There

By Plane

The airport of Cartagena (and Murcia) is Murcia-San Javier Airport (IATA: MJV / ICAO: LELC) and is located about 25 kilometres south of the city. It has connections with Air Berlin to Palma de Mallorca, Bmibaby to Birmingham and Cardiff, Easyjet to Bristol, London-Gatwick and Newcastle. Iberia (Air Nostrum) offers connections to Barcelona and Madrid, Jetairfly flies to Charleroi in Belgium (Brussels South Charleroi Airport). Norwegian Air Shuttle flies to Bergen, Oslo-Gardermoen, Stavanger and Trondheim, and Ryanair to Birmingham, Bournemouth, Dublin, East Midlands, Glasgow-Prestwick, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, London-Luton, London-Stansted. There are also some seasonal flights with the following companies: Jet2.com to Belfast, Blackpool, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle. and Monarch Airlines has flights to Birmingham, London-Gatwick, and Manchester.

Another option is to fly into Alicante International Airport, about 80 kilometres to the north in the Valencian Community.

Keep Connected

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Post

If you want to post a card, you can head to the post office (Correos). The Spanish post is not yet as efficient as colleagues in other countries so receiving a card can take a bit longer than the number of days that it should take. On the website of Correos, you can find the locations of nearby post offices.
Post offices are generally open from 8:30am to 2:00pm, although times can vary and the main post office usually is open until the early evening. Most will also open again on Saturday mornings, but in the smaller towns will close as early as 12 noon. When posting a letter, look for a yellow box and, if possible, post at the post office itself where there will also be divisions for local, national and international mail. Be prepared for long queues at the post office. This is why tobacco shops sell stamps and many will also have the facility to weigh packages.
Standard letters/postcards of up to 20 grams sent within Spain are €0.34. However, non-standard letters/postcards of up to 20g are €0.39. Letters/postcards of 20 to 50 grams are €0.45. In the case of international shipping, the price is €0.64 to most countries within Europe for standard envelopes (letters/postcards) up to 20g, for a few European countries and outside Europe it is €0.78.

External Links

• Official Governmental Website