VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or Galle?

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

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Galle for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Galle’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, Galle 80: Galle leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Galle 50: Galle leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Galle 55: Antigua Guatemala leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Galle 18: Antigua Guatemala leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Galle 66: Antigua Guatemala leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Galle 50: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Galle 42: Galle leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Galle 35: Antigua Guatemala leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Galle 33: Antigua Guatemala leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Galle 72: Galle leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Galle 10: Antigua Guatemala leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Galle 70: Galle leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Galle.

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 getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

Galle
48match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaGalle

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.

Galle 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaGalle
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 m0 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaGalle
City population59,09193,118
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Galle 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.