VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Medellin or Thessaloniki?

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 Thessaloniki for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Thessaloniki leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Medellin and Thessaloniki are level on 76.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin and Thessaloniki are level on 66.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Medellin and Thessaloniki are level on 50.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Thessaloniki 66: Medellin leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Thessaloniki 52: Thessaloniki leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Thessaloniki 33: Thessaloniki leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights 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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinThessaloniki

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). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinThessaloniki
Official languageSpanishGreek
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation1,405 m6 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinThessaloniki
City population2,529,403309,617
People per km²6,64416,042
Museums within 10 km1432
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Thessaloniki 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.