How Bogota 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
Bogota Doesn't win on any measure here. See who it suits, below.
Medellin Doesn't win on any measure here. See who it suits, below.
Everyday costsEven
What we have checked of rent, a coworking desk, weekday lunches and getting around comes to $769 to $1,590 (£578 to £1,190) a month in Bogota, against $1,080 to $2,110 (£810 to £1,580) in Medellin. We can't call it: Bogota has no checked figure for a desk, so that total leaves it out.
The visaEven
Same country, same visa: the Visa V Nomada Digital, at 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 Bogota, 03:00 to 11:00 in Medellin.
A New York 9 to 5Even
Normal hours in both: 08:00 to 16:00 in Bogota, 08:00 to 16:00 in Medellin.
InternetEven
Much the same. Typical download speed: 72 Mbps in Bogota, 66.5 Mbps in Medellin, from each guide.
SafetyEven
Same country, same US advice: level 3.
Side by side
Measure
Bogota
Medellin
Country
Colombia
Colombia
Language
Spanish
Spanish
Currency
Colombian peso (COP)
Colombian peso (COP)
Plugs
Type A and B, 110V
Type A and B, 110V
Time zone
UTC−5 today
UTC−5 today
A month's basics
$769 to $1,590 (£578 to £1,190), with a desk missing
$1,080 to $2,110 (£810 to £1,580)
Remote work visa
Visa V Nomada Digital
Visa V Nomada Digital
Income needed
About $1,650 a month (COP 5,252,715 a month)
About $1,650 a month (COP 5,252,715 a month)
Without a visa
British and American passports: 90 days, up to 180 in a year
British and American passports: 90 days, up to 180 in a year
Tax residency
183 days in any 365
183 days in any 365
Download speed
72 Mbps
66.5 Mbps
Comfortable months
—
January, February, June, July, August and September
US travel advice
Level 3: reconsider travel
Level 3: reconsider travel
Meetups
None we could confirm
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.
Bogota
$769 to $1,590£578 to £1,190 a month
Rent
$599 to $1,420Furnished studio or one-bed, asking, Chapinero Alto and Usaquen. Administracion is often extra. COP 1,900,000 to 4,500,000
A desk
No checked figureNo monthly coworking price on an operator's own site: Regus quotes COP 21,967 a day only on 24-month contracts
Weekday lunches
$122Corrientazo, the national average in January 2026. There is no Bogota figure, COP 17,542 each, 22 working days
Getting around
$49TransMilenio at COP 3,550 a ride, two rides each working day (our arithmetic). COP 156,200
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 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.
Bogota
It suits
Someone who wants a big capital rather than a nomad enclave, and who will live on TransMilenio at COP 3,550 a ride. US-facing workers, who get UTC-5 with no clock changes. Someone who is happy for the weekend to be free museums: the Museo Botero every day, the Museo del Oro on Sundays. And someone with Spanish, or about to learn it: Bogota's English score of 513 beats Colombia's 480, but Spanish still does the work at every counter that matters.
It doesn't suit
Anyone wanting a warm-weather nomad city. Anyone who needs everything in English: the tourist police complaints route, the cedula, the car-restriction platform and the lease all run in Spanish. Anyone who takes a listed rent as the rent, because administracion often adds COP 400,000 to 600,000 a month. Anyone careless about safety: the US rates Colombia Level 3, "Reconsider travel", the US Embassy has warned that foreigners are drugged and robbed through dating apps in Bogota, and the British government warns of fake police who ask to check your cash. And anyone hoping the nomad visa leads somewhere: it does not count towards residence, and its income bar resets every January.
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.
