Flight Time from Los Angeles (LAX) to Cartagena (CTG)

Non-stop, the LAX–CTG sector prices out at 6.64 hours — 5,074 km at 850 km/h plus 40 minutes of taxi, climb and approach. One connection is the realistic worst case for most calendars: expect the total to land near 10.1 hours with a single well-chosen hub, and near 14.1 hours with two.

Mid-band sectors like LAX–CTG (5,074 km) usually carry both non-stops and cheap one-stop alternatives — compare totals at 10.1 h before choosing. Between UTC−8 and UTC−5 you gain a 3-hour head start on the day — worth remembering when you schedule the first dinner or call.

Bogotá (BOG) is the nearest alternative endpoint, 650 km from Cartagena — close enough that some fares from LAX price it as the same destination. From LAX, reaching BOG instead takes about 1.4 h — less airborne time than the 6.64 h non-stop, and the surface leg into Cartagena still has to be won back.

Companion flight-time pages exist for 1 of these alternatives (BOG first among them) — see Related calculators. Ground transfer from the alternative airport back into Cartagena is the catch for arrivals off the LAX service: the 650 km back-offset is time you must win back in fare savings.

Leave Los Angeles at 10:00 and the local arrival clock in Cartagena reads about 19:38, which tells you whether day one is recoverable. Daily spend shifts at landing: $117 in Cartagena against $268 at home in Los Angeles, using the dataset's mid-range figures.

On those numbers Cartagena is the cheaper place to linger — the gap is $150 per day, which over a week funds a second flight. The modest 3-hour eastbound shift keeps the Los Angeles–Cartagena trip easy to absorb.