VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Medellin or Valletta?

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

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Valletta for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Valletta 55: Medellin leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Valletta 46: Medellin leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Valletta 56: Medellin leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Valletta 58: Valletta leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Valletta 62: Valletta leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Valletta 38: Medellin leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Valletta 50: Medellin leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Valletta 44: Valletta leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Valletta 32: Valletta leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Medellin
51match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Valletta
Best match
55match

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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinValletta

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). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinValletta
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number123112
Elevation1,405 m56 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinValletta
City population2,529,4035,197
People per km²6,6446,496
Museums within 10 km1416
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

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