How Lima and Medellin compare on cost, visas, working hours, weather, internet and safety. Every figure comes from our city guides and tools, checked and dated there.
The short answer
Lima Pick it for faster internet and a lower US travel advisory level.
Medellin Doesn't win on any measure here. See who it suits, below.
Everyday costsEven
Close: it depends more on where you live than which city. Rent, a coworking desk, weekday lunches and getting around come to $1,060 to $1,580 (£797 to £1,190) a month in Lima, against $1,080 to $2,110 (£810 to £1,580) in Medellin.
The visaEven
Peru has no remote work visa, so the choice is about more than income. Lima: no remote work visa. Medellin: Visa V Nomada Digital, about $1,650 a month (COP 5,252,715 a month).
A London 9 to 5Even
A start in the small hours in both: 03:00 to 11:00 in Lima, 03:00 to 11:00 in Medellin.
A New York 9 to 5Even
Normal hours in both: 08:00 to 16:00 in Lima, 08:00 to 16:00 in Medellin.
WeatherEven
Comfortable months on our best-time rule: 7 in Lima, 6 in Medellin. Both are comfortable in January and February.
InternetLima
Lima is faster. Typical download speed: 207 Mbps in Lima, 66.5 Mbps in Medellin, from each guide.
SafetyLima
Lima. The US State Department puts Peru at level 2 and Colombia at level 3.
Side by side
Measure
Lima
Medellin
Country
Peru
Colombia
Language
Spanish
Spanish
Currency
Sol (PEN)
Colombian peso (COP)
Plugs
—
Type A and B, 110V
Time zone
UTC−5 today
UTC−5 today
A month's basics
$1,060 to $1,580 (£797 to £1,190)
$1,080 to $2,110 (£810 to £1,580)
Remote work visa
None
Visa V Nomada Digital
Income needed
Nomad status in law since 2023, but no sign it has opened
About $1,650 a month (COP 5,252,715 a month)
Without a visa
British passports: not checked: the UK government's entry page could not be opened. American: under 90 days for tourism, no visa; the border officer sets the stay
British and American passports: 90 days, up to 180 in a year
Tax residency
More than 183 days in any 12 months, counting arrival and departure days; resident from the next 1 January
183 days in any 365
Download speed
207 Mbps
66.5 Mbps
Comfortable months
January, February, March, April, May, November and December
January, February, June, July, August and September
US travel advice
Level 2: increased caution
Level 3: reconsider travel
Meetups
1 regular group still running
3 regular groups still running
Dollars and pounds at today's exchange rate. Download speeds are the typical figure from each guide, which says where it comes from: some are for the city, some for the whole country, so treat a small gap as no gap.
What a month costs
Rent, a coworking desk, a cheap lunch on each of 22 working days, and getting around: the same four costs our budget calculator uses. The rent figures aren't always the same kind of figure (some are furnished one-beds, some are averages across every size of flat), so read the note under each.
Lima
$1,060 to $1,580£797 to £1,190 a month
Rent
$781 to $1,250Average rent for an unfurnished 100 square metre three-bed, Lince up to Barranco (Urbania, April 2026). There is no one-bed figure, so a one-bed costs less. PEN 2,690 to 4,317
A desk
$184 to $216WeWork coworking membership. PEN 634 to 745
Weekday lunches
$77 to $89Menu, the set weekday lunch at a market stall, PEN 12 to 14 each, 22 working days
Getting around
$19Metro Line 1 at PEN 1.50 a ride, two rides each working day (our arithmetic). A 2023 fare, not rechecked. PEN 66
British passports: not checked: the UK government's entry page could not be opened. American: under 90 days for tourism, no visa; the border officer sets the stay
The catch. Peru created a "Nomada Digital" immigration status in law in 2023 (Decreto Legislativo 1582): up to 365 days, extendable, for remote employees of a company based abroad. No source confirms its rules are in force. The latest, a PUCP law journal article of 25 November 2025, says the regulations had not been published and the procedures not set, so there was nothing to apply for. Meanwhile, visitors can come visa-free as tourists, for a stay the border officer sets: under 90 days for American passports. Check with Migraciones before relying on the nomad status. Make sure your entry is recorded, for example with a passport stamp. Without a record you may not be allowed to leave until immigration confirms your entry, which can take weeks, and overstays are fined on exit.
Medellin
Visa V Nomada Digital
Income needed
About $1,650 a month (COP 5,252,715 a month); in pounds, about £1,240 a month
How long
Up to two years
What it leads to
Nowhere: time on it does not count towards residence
Without a visa
British and American passports: 90 days, up to 180 in a year
The catch. The bar is pinned to the minimum wage, so it moves every January. The 2026 wage survived a court challenge in July, though a final ruling is still due.
The average high in °C each month, coloured by the rule on our best-time page: green is a high of 20 to 32°C with under 150mm of rain; red is a high of 38°C or more or under 12°C, 250mm of rain or more, or 33°C or more with 150mm of rain or more. Hover over a month for its rain.
The UK government says street crime, including muggings and thefts, is a significant problem in Lima, and reports gunpoint robberies of British tourists in Miraflores and Barranco.
The US level is for the whole country, as the State Department sets it, and some countries have stricter advice for particular regions.
Who each one suits
From each city guide, word for word.
Lima
It suits
Someone who wants a big Spanish-speaking capital and is happy to come on a visitor stay. From December to April highs run at 23 to 27 degrees, with about 165 to 190 hours of sunshine a month. There is real coworking in Miraflores and San Isidro, from PEN 634 a month, and Peru's median fixed broadband was 206.5 Mbps in April 2025. If you like eating out cheaply, the weekday menu is a set lunch for PEN 12 to 14 at a market stall.
It doesn't suit
Anyone who wants a nomad visa. Peru created one in law in 2023, but the latest checkable source, from November 2025, said its rules were still unpublished. Anyone who needs sun all year: from June to September Lima is grey, and August averages 17.5 degrees and about 28 hours of sunshine in the whole month. The two districts you would most want to live in, Miraflores and Barranco, are the two the UK government names for gunpoint robberies of British tourists. And without Spanish, every official process is hard.
You want a city where the weather stops being a variable — 21 to 22 degrees every month, no heating, no air conditioning, no seasonal reckoning — and where a genuinely good metro means you never need a car. It suits asynchronous or US-facing work, because UTC-5 with no clock changes is the cleanest overlap with North America you will find down here. And it suits anyone who will actually learn Spanish, because the reward curve is steep: the difference between the Poblado bubble at 3.3 million pesos a month and real Medellin at 2.3 is mostly linguistic.
It doesn't suit
You are expecting the Instagram version. This is a Spanish-speaking city with the English proficiency of a country ranked 76th in the world, and every interaction that matters happens at a counter with a queue. It rains on twenty-five days in October. The nomad visa is a two-year cul-de-sac that leads nowhere near residency, the income bar jumped 23 per cent overnight because it is pinned to the minimum wage, and citizenship got harder rather than easier. And be clear-eyed about the crime: the murder rate is a third of the national average and falling, but El Poblado and Laureles are first and second in the city for drug-assisted robbery, with 428 cases by August against 227 in all of 2025. Both the British and American governments say so in writing.
