VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Medellin or Tromso?

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
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Tromso’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, Tromso 8: Tromso leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Tromso 36: Medellin leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Tromso 27: Medellin leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Tromso 38: Medellin leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Tromso 14: Medellin leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Tromso 45: Medellin leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Tromso 60: Tromso leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Tromso 15: Medellin leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Tromso 11: Medellin leads by 69 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Tromso 32: Medellin leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Medellin
Best match
51match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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

Tromso in July

16 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
24 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinTromso

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). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinTromso
Official languageSpanishNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation1,405 m20 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinTromso
City population2,529,40379,943
People per km²6,64432
Museums within 10 km148
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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