VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Medellin or Phuket?

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

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Phuket’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, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Phuket 35: Medellin leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Phuket 72: Medellin leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Phuket 45: Medellin leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Phuket 65: Phuket leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Phuket 22: Medellin leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Phuket 42: Medellin leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Phuket 68: Medellin leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Phuket 20: Medellin leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 52 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Medellin
51match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinPhuket

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.

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

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). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinPhuket
Official languageSpanishThai
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number123Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation1,405 m19 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinPhuket
City population2,529,40377,610
People per km²6,6446,468
Museums within 10 km142
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 Phuket 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.