VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License.

Medellin or Philadelphia?

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
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Philadelphia for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Philadelphia’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, Philadelphia 36: Philadelphia leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Philadelphia 62: Philadelphia leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Philadelphia 55: Medellin leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Philadelphia 52: Medellin leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Philadelphia 80: Philadelphia leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Philadelphia 68: Philadelphia leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Philadelphia 66: Philadelphia leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Philadelphia 57: Philadelphia leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Philadelphia 40: Medellin leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Philadelphia 26: Medellin leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Medellin and Philadelphia.

Your match

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

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Philadelphia
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights 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

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinPhiladelphia

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). Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinPhiladelphia
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 m12 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinPhiladelphia
City population2,529,4031,603,797
People per km²6,6444,339
Museums within 10 km1454
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

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