VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Medellin or Oaxaca?

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

  • nightlife
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Oaxaca for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Oaxaca’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 and Oaxaca are level on 5.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Oaxaca 84: Oaxaca leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Oaxaca 74: Oaxaca leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Oaxaca 40: Medellin leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Oaxaca 62: Medellin leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Oaxaca 65: Oaxaca leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Oaxaca 40: Medellin leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Medellin and Oaxaca are level on 55.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Oaxaca 62: Oaxaca leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Oaxaca 77: Medellin leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Oaxaca 38: Medellin leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Oaxaca 50: Oaxaca leads by 20 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Medellin
51match

Wins on nightlife and families with your weighting.

Oaxaca
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink 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 recordsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinOaxaca

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). Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinOaxaca
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number123911
Elevation1,405 m1,555 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinOaxaca
City population2,529,403258,913
People per km²6,6443,028
Museums within 10 km1410
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Medellin or Oaxaca 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. 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.