VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or Salvador?

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
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Salvador for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Salvador 52: Antigua Guatemala leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Salvador 42: Antigua Guatemala leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Salvador 42: Antigua Guatemala leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Salvador 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 Salvador.

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 getting around with your weighting.

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaSalvador

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). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSalvador
Official languageSpanishPortuguese
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation1,582 m8 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSalvador
City population59,0912,417,678
People per km²-3,489
Museums within 10 km249
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Salvador 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. 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.