VacationSelector
A dhow below the towers of West Bay, Doha
DohaA dhow below the towers of West Bay
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Doha by Gregory Hawken Kramer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Doha 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 Doha for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Medellin for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • 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. Doha 45, Medellin 5: Doha leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Doha 55, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Doha 55, Medellin 42: Doha leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Doha 20, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Doha 7, Medellin 66: Medellin leads by 59 points.
Day trips. Doha 5, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Doha 60, Medellin 50: Doha leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Doha 45, Medellin 55: Medellin leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Doha 60, Medellin 45: Doha leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Doha 38, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Doha 30, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Doha 38, Medellin 30: Doha leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Doha and Medellin.

Your match

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

Doha
38match

Wins on beaches and shopping 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.

Doha in July

43 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
33 °Csea
14 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
DohaMedellin

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. Doha: 1991-2020 normals, Doha International Airport (5.5 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDohaMedellin
Official languageArabicSpanish
CurrencyQatari Rial (QAR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5
Emergency number999123
Elevation0 m1,405 m
Main airportHamad International Airport (DOH)8 km from centre195 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-19 days

By the numbers

MeasureDohaMedellin
City population1,186,0232,529,403
People per km²8,9856,644
Museums within 10 km614
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months-

Where else could you go?

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