VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Medellin or Valparaiso?

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
  • families

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Valparaiso 50: Medellin leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Valparaiso 56: Medellin leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Valparaiso 60: Medellin leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Valparaiso 63: Valparaiso leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Valparaiso 33: Medellin leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Valparaiso 44: Medellin leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Valparaiso 30: Medellin leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Valparaiso 60: Medellin leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Valparaiso 38: Medellin leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Valparaiso 18: Medellin leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Medellin
Best match
51match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

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 seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinValparaiso

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.

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinValparaiso
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number123Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation1,405 m21 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinValparaiso
City population2,529,403296,655
People per km²6,6446,180
Museums within 10 km1417
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Valparaiso 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.