VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Alicante or Guadalajara?

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 Alicante for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Guadalajara for

  • live music and the arts
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Guadalajara’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. Alicante 82, Guadalajara 5: Alicante leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Guadalajara 75: Guadalajara leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Guadalajara 62: Guadalajara leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Guadalajara 68: Guadalajara leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Guadalajara 55: Alicante leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Guadalajara 66: Alicante leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Guadalajara 55: Alicante leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Guadalajara 40: Alicante leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Guadalajara 78: Guadalajara leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Guadalajara 35: Alicante leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Guadalajara.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Guadalajara
55match

Wins on live music and the arts and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteGuadalajara

Where the figures come from

Guadalajara has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteGuadalajara
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m1,536 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteGuadalajara
City population366,2211,385,621
People per km²1,8199,556
Museums within 10 km817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Guadalajara 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.