VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Baku 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 Baku for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Medellin for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • prices

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. Baku 40, Medellin 5: Baku leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, Medellin 58: Baku leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, Medellin 42: Baku leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Medellin 66: Medellin leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Medellin 50: Medellin leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Medellin 55: Baku leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, Medellin 45: Baku leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, Medellin 42: Baku leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku and Medellin are level on 30.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku and Medellin.

Your match

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

Baku
48match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Medellin
Best match
51match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Medellin in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BakuMedellin

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. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuMedellin
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-5
Emergency number102 or 112123
Elevation-28 m1,405 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuMedellin
City population2,300,5002,529,403
People per km²1,0756,644
Museums within 10 km5014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.