VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
A lifeguard stand on South Beach, Miami
MiamiA lifeguard stand on South Beach

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

Medellin or Miami?

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 Medellin for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Miami for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Miami’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. Medellin 5, Miami 90: Miami leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Miami 72: Miami leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Miami 57: Miami leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Miami 82: Miami leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Miami 64: Medellin leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Miami 42: Medellin leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Miami 64: Miami leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Miami 35: Medellin leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Miami 71: Miami leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Miami 27: Medellin leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Miami 55: Miami leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Miami 44: Miami leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Medellin and Miami.

Your match

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

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Miami
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Medellin in July

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

Miami in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinMiami

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. Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre). Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinMiami
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation1,405 m2 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsMiami International Airport (MIA)7 km from centre198 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinMiami
City population2,529,403442,241
People per km²6,6443,046
Museums within 10 km1417
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Medellin or Miami 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.