VacationSelector
Wat Pho, Bangkok
BangkokWat Pho
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Bangkok by Lu Zhao, Pexels License; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bangkok 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 Bangkok for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Medellin for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Bangkok 12, Medellin 5: Bangkok leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Bangkok 95, Medellin 58: Bangkok leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Bangkok 80, Medellin 42: Bangkok leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Bangkok 85, Medellin 76: Bangkok leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bangkok 25, Medellin 66: Medellin leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Bangkok 72, Medellin 58: Bangkok leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Bangkok and Medellin are level on 50.
Getting around. Bangkok 50, Medellin 55: Medellin leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Bangkok 80, Medellin 45: Bangkok leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Bangkok 85, Medellin 80: Bangkok leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bangkok 52, Medellin 42: Bangkok leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bangkok 75, Medellin 30: Bangkok leads by 45 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Bangkok
Best match
63match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Medellin
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bangkok in July

34 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
184 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 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
BangkokMedellin

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. Bangkok: 1991-2020 normals, Bangkok (5.7 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBangkokMedellin
Official languageThaiSpanish
CurrencyBaht (THB)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199123
Elevation2 m1,405 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)26 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBangkokMedellin
City population5,676,6482,529,403
People per km²3,6196,644
Museums within 10 km5914
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bangkok 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.