VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or San Sebastian?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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 Sebastian 68: San Sebastian leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, San Sebastian 52: Antigua Guatemala leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, San Sebastian 44: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, San Sebastian 72: Antigua Guatemala leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, San Sebastian 40: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, San Sebastian 32: Antigua Guatemala leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and San Sebastian.

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.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and food and drink 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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaSan Sebastian

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.

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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 Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSan Sebastian
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 m6 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSan Sebastian
City population59,091189,866
People per km²-3,118
Museums within 10 km214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala or San Sebastian 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.