VacationSelector
La Paz
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

La Paz 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 La Paz for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Medellin for

  • families
  • 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. La Paz 3, Medellin 5: Medellin leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. La Paz 50, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. La Paz 52, Medellin 42: La Paz leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. La Paz 38, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Paz 82, Medellin 66: La Paz leads by 16 points.
Day trips. La Paz 40, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 18 points.
Good for families. La Paz 10, Medellin 50: Medellin leads by 40 points.
Getting around. La Paz 45, Medellin 55: Medellin leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. La Paz and Medellin are level on 45.
Affordability. La Paz 92, Medellin 80: La Paz leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Paz 35, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Paz 12, Medellin 30: Medellin leads by 18 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Paz and Medellin.

Your match

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

La Paz
42match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Medellin
Best match
51match

Wins on families 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.

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
11 hdaylight a day

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
La PazMedellin

Where the figures come from

La Paz has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa PazMedellin
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, GuaraniSpanish
CurrencyBoliviano (BOB)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAC50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation3,640 m1,405 m
Main airportEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre35 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa PazMedellin
City population755,7322,529,403
People per km²1,6016,644
Museums within 10 km2114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow La Paz or Medellin somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.