VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
Punta del Este

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or Punta del Este?

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 Punta del Este for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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, Punta del Este 72: Punta del Este leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Punta del Este 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Punta del Este 22: Antigua Guatemala leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Punta del Este 60: Punta del Este leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Punta del Este 55: Antigua Guatemala leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Punta del Este 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Punta del Este 55: Punta del Este leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Punta del Este 35: Antigua Guatemala leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Punta del Este 42: Antigua Guatemala leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Punta del Este 20: Antigua Guatemala leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala and Punta del Este are level on 22.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Punta del Este 32: Antigua Guatemala 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 Punta del Este.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
Best match
47match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Punta del Este
42match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaPunta del Este

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.

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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). Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaPunta del Este
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123911
Elevation1,582 m11 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaPunta del Este
City population59,0919,277
People per km²-455
Museums within 10 km25
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 Punta del Este 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.