VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Medellin or Wellington?

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
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Wellington 45: Medellin leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Wellington 40: Medellin leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Wellington 42: Medellin leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Wellington 33: Medellin leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin and Wellington are level on 30.
0255075100

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

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

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). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinWellington
Official languageSpanishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number123111
Elevation1,405 m0 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinWellington
City population2,529,403216,200
People per km²6,644487
Museums within 10 km1412
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 Wellington 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.