VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Medellin or San Jose?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose San Jose for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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 Jose 30: San Jose leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, San Jose 56: Medellin leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, San Jose 36: Medellin leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, San Jose 33: Medellin leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, San Jose 30: Medellin leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, San Jose 20: Medellin leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, San Jose 38: Medellin leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin and San Jose are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Medellin and San Jose.

Your match

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

Medellin
Best match
51match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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 Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinSan Jose

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 Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinSan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinSan Jose
City population2,529,4031,013,240
People per km²6,6442,167
Museums within 10 km1419
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 Jose 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.