VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala or Madrid?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Madrid for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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, Madrid 5: Antigua Guatemala leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Madrid 60: Antigua Guatemala leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Madrid 50: Antigua Guatemala leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 55 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Madrid 36: Antigua Guatemala 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 Madrid.

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.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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
13 hdaylight a day

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaMadrid

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). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaMadrid
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123112
Elevation1,582 m663 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaMadrid
City population59,0913,506,730
People per km²-5,801
Museums within 10 km288
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14

Where else could you go?

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