VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Antigua Guatemala?

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 Acapulco for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Antigua Guatemala’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. Acapulco 80, Antigua Guatemala 6: Acapulco leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Antigua Guatemala 48: Acapulco leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Antigua Guatemala 68: Antigua Guatemala leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Antigua Guatemala 34: Acapulco leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Antigua Guatemala 78: Antigua Guatemala leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Antigua Guatemala 55: Antigua Guatemala leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Antigua Guatemala 38: Acapulco leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Antigua Guatemala 60: Antigua Guatemala leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Antigua Guatemala 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Antigua Guatemala 67: Acapulco leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Antigua Guatemala 22: Acapulco leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Antigua Guatemala 42: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Antigua Guatemala.

Your match

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

Acapulco
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Antigua Guatemala
Best match
47match

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.

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoAntigua Guatemala

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoAntigua Guatemala
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Quetzal (GTQ)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-6
Emergency number911Police 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123
Elevation18 m1,582 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoAntigua Guatemala
City population658,60959,091
People per km²350-
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Antigua Guatemala 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.