VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Medellin for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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. Los Angeles 60, Medellin 5: Los Angeles leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Medellin 58: Los Angeles leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Medellin 42: Los Angeles leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Medellin 66: Los Angeles leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Medellin 58: Los Angeles leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Medellin 50: Los Angeles leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Medellin 55: Medellin leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Medellin 45: Los Angeles leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Medellin 42: Los Angeles leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Medellin 30: Los Angeles leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Medellin.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesMedellin

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. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesMedellin
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation106 m1,405 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesMedellin
City population3,898,7472,529,403
People per km²2,9946,644
Museums within 10 km3914
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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