VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala or Colombo?

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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Colombo for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Colombo’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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Colombo 55: Colombo leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Colombo 66: Colombo leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Colombo 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Colombo 35: Colombo leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Colombo 32: Antigua Guatemala leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Colombo 50: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Colombo 35: Antigua Guatemala leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Colombo 35: Antigua Guatemala leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala and Colombo are level on 45.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Colombo 78: Colombo leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Colombo 30: Colombo leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Colombo 48: Colombo leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Colombo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Colombo
46match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaColombo

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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaColombo
Official languageSpanishTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation1,582 m1 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaColombo
City population59,091647,557
People per km²-17,361
Museums within 10 km210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala or Colombo 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.