VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or San Diego?

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
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Diego for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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, San Diego 72: San Diego leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, San Diego 62: San Diego leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, San Diego 50: Antigua Guatemala leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, San Diego 48: San Diego leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, San Diego 77: Antigua Guatemala leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, San Diego 60: San Diego leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 58 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, San Diego 38: Antigua Guatemala leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, San Diego 44: Antigua Guatemala leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, San Diego 26: Antigua Guatemala leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, San Diego 56: San Diego leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, San Diego 45: San Diego leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and San Diego.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

San Diego
Best match
56match

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 seasea
13 hdaylight a day

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaSan Diego

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). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSan Diego
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123911
Elevation1,582 m129 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSan Diego
City population59,0911,386,932
People per km²-1,438
Museums within 10 km226
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala or San Diego 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.