VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Medellin or San Francisco?

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

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: San Francisco leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, San Francisco 58: Medellin leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, San Francisco 14: Medellin leads by 66 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Medellin and San Francisco.

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.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on live music and the arts 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 seasea
12 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinSan Francisco

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). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinSan Francisco
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation1,405 m16 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinSan Francisco
City population2,529,403873,965
People per km²6,6441,455
Museums within 10 km1451
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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