VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala or Dubai?

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
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Dubai for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Dubai’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, Dubai 80: Dubai leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Dubai 76: Dubai leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Dubai 40: Antigua Guatemala leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Dubai 62: Dubai leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Dubai 25: Antigua Guatemala leads by 53 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Dubai 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 44 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Dubai 42: Antigua Guatemala leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Dubai 32: Antigua Guatemala leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Dubai 40: Dubai leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Dubai 46: Dubai leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Dubai.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Dubai
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and families 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 seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Dubai in July

42 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaDubai

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). Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaDubai
Official languageSpanishArabic
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)UAE Dirham (AED)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+4
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123112
Elevation1,582 m0 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaDubai
City population59,0913,944,751
Museums within 10 km214
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 Dubai 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.