VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Boston 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 Boston for

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

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

Choose Medellin for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • 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. Boston 35, Medellin 5: Boston leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Medellin 58: Boston leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Medellin 42: Boston leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Medellin 66: Medellin leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, Medellin 58: Boston leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, Medellin 50: Boston leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Medellin 55: Boston leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Medellin 45: Boston leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 62 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Medellin 42: Boston leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston and Medellin are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and Medellin.

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices 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.

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BostonMedellin

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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonMedellin
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation43 m1,405 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonMedellin
City population675,6472,529,403
People per km²2,9106,644
Museums within 10 km5114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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