VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Medellin or Shanghai?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Shanghai leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Shanghai 25: Medellin leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Shanghai 55: Medellin leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Medellin and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Medellin
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on shopping 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 recordsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinShanghai
Official languageSpanishPutonghua
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number123Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation1,405 m4 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinShanghai
City population2,529,40324,870,895
People per km²6,6443,922
Museums within 10 km1445
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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