VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

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

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

Choose Medellin for

  • getting around
  • 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. Johannesburg and Medellin are level on 5.
Food & drink. Johannesburg and Medellin are level on 58.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Medellin 42: Johannesburg leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Medellin 66: Medellin leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Medellin 50: Medellin leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Medellin 55: Medellin leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Medellin 45: Johannesburg leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Medellin 42: Johannesburg leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 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: Johannesburg and Medellin.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Medellin
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around 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.

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgMedellin

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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgMedellin
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5
Emergency number112123
Elevation1,753 m1,405 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre35 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgMedellin
City population4,803,2622,529,403
People per km²2,9226,644
Museums within 10 km1414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

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