VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Medellin or Tampa?

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
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose Tampa for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Tampa leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Tampa 57: Medellin leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin and Tampa are level on 42.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Tampa 52: Medellin leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Tampa 55: Medellin leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Tampa 54: Medellin leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Tampa 22: Medellin leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Tampa 40: Medellin leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Tampa 40: Medellin leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin and Tampa are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Medellin and Tampa.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Tampa
49match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinTampa

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). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinTampa
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number123911
Elevation1,405 m30 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinTampa
City population2,529,403384,959
People per km²6,644848
Museums within 10 km146
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

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