VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Medellin or Xi'an?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Xi'an’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, Xi'an 4: Medellin leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Xi'an 42: Medellin leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Xi'an 62: Medellin leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Xi'an 48: Medellin leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Medellin and Xi'an are level on 80.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Xi'an 40: Medellin leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Medellin
51match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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
12 hdaylight a day

Xi'an in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinXi'an

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). Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinXi'an
Official languageSpanishPutonghua
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number123Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation1,405 m405 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinXi'an
City population2,529,40312,952,907
People per km²6,6441,283
Museums within 10 km149
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

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