VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

Medellin or Seoul?

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

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

Choose Seoul for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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, Seoul 18: Seoul leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Seoul 77: Seoul leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Seoul 50: Medellin leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Seoul 63: Seoul leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 45 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on wellness and shopping 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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinSeoul

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). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinSeoul
Official languageSpanishKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Won (KRW)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+9
Emergency number123Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation1,405 m38 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinSeoul
City population2,529,4039,668,465
People per km²6,64415,973
Museums within 10 km1481
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
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 Seoul 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.