VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chicago 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 Chicago for

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

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

Choose Medellin for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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. Chicago 50, Medellin 5: Chicago leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Medellin 58: Chicago leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Medellin 42: Chicago leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Medellin 76: Chicago leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Medellin 66: Medellin leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Medellin 50: Chicago leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Medellin 55: Chicago leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Medellin 45: Chicago leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Medellin 42: Chicago leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Medellin 30: Chicago leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Medellin.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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.

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
21 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoMedellin

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. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoMedellin
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation179 m1,405 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoMedellin
City population2,746,3882,529,403
People per km²4,5296,644
Museums within 10 km4414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago 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.