VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala or Istanbul?

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

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

Choose Istanbul for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Istanbul’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, Istanbul 45: Istanbul leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Istanbul 87: Istanbul leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Istanbul 90: Istanbul leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Istanbul 77: Istanbul leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Istanbul 52: Antigua Guatemala leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala and Istanbul are level on 55.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Istanbul 55: Istanbul leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Istanbul 62: Istanbul leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Istanbul 86: Istanbul leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Istanbul 60: Antigua Guatemala leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Istanbul 62: Istanbul leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Istanbul 75: Istanbul leads by 33 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Istanbul.

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.

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on nightlife and shopping 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

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaIstanbul

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). Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaIstanbul
Official languageSpanishTurkish
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123112
Elevation1,582 m100 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaIstanbul
City population59,09115,655,924
People per km²-2,930
Museums within 10 km273
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala or Istanbul 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.