VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Medellin or San Sebastian?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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 Sebastian 68: San Sebastian leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, San Sebastian 44: Medellin leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, San Sebastian 72: San Sebastian leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, San Sebastian 40: Medellin leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, San Sebastian 32: Medellin leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Medellin and San Sebastian.

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 Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinSan Sebastian

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.

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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 Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinSan Sebastian
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation1,405 m6 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinSan Sebastian
City population2,529,403189,866
People per km²6,6443,118
Museums within 10 km1414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Medellin or San Sebastian 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.