VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town, Marbella
MarbellaThe Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala or Marbella?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Marbella for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Marbella’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, Marbella 76: Marbella leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Marbella 60: Marbella leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Marbella 32: Antigua Guatemala leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Marbella 64: Marbella leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Marbella 70: Antigua Guatemala leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Marbella 77: Marbella leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Marbella 70: Marbella leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Marbella 38: Antigua Guatemala leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Marbella 58: Marbella leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Marbella 30: Antigua Guatemala leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Marbella 30: Marbella leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Marbella 52: Marbella leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Marbella.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Marbella
Best match
55match

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 recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Marbella in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaMarbella

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.

Marbella's temperatures are measured 40 km from the centre, at Malaga / Aeropuerto.

Marbella 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). Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaMarbella
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 m22 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaMarbella
City population59,091159,786
People per km²-1,398
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Marbella 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.