VacationSelector
The Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill, Halifax
HalifaxThe Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Halifax by Danieljmacdonald, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Halifax 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 Halifax for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Medellin for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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. Halifax 32, Medellin 5: Halifax leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Halifax 50, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Halifax and Medellin are level on 42.
Nightlife. Halifax 46, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Halifax 62, Medellin 66: Medellin leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Halifax 63, Medellin 58: Halifax leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Halifax 55, Medellin 50: Halifax leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Halifax 48, Medellin 55: Medellin leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Halifax 35, Medellin 45: Medellin leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Halifax 38, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Halifax 46, Medellin 42: Halifax leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Halifax 28, Medellin 30: Medellin leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Halifax and Medellin.

Your match

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

Halifax
45match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Medellin
Best match
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.

Halifax in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
14 °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
HalifaxMedellin

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. Halifax: 1991-2020 normals, Shearwater Airport (6 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHalifaxMedellin
Official languageFrench, EnglishSpanish
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation28 m1,405 m
Main airportHalifax / Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)26 km from centre40 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre35 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureHalifaxMedellin
City population440,0722,529,403
People per km²806,644
Museums within 10 km1514
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 Halifax 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.