VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Athens or Medellin?

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 Athens for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Medellin for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Medellin’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. Athens 70, Medellin 5: Athens leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Medellin 58: Athens leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Medellin 42: Athens leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Medellin 76: Athens leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Medellin 66: Medellin leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Medellin 58: Athens leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Medellin 50: Athens leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Medellin 55: Athens leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Medellin 45: Athens leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Medellin 42: Athens leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Medellin 30: Athens leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Medellin.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AthensMedellin

Where the figures come from

Medellin 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensMedellin
Official languageGreekSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation74 m1,405 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensMedellin
City population643,4522,529,403
People per km²16,4996,644
Museums within 10 km8814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens or Medellin 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.