VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or Santiago de Compostela?

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
  • shopping
  • prices

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

Choose Santiago de Compostela for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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, Santiago de Compostela 32: Santiago de Compostela leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Santiago de Compostela 68: Santiago de Compostela leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Santiago de Compostela 45: Santiago de Compostela leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Santiago de Compostela 62: Antigua Guatemala leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Santiago de Compostela 72: Santiago de Compostela leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Santiago de Compostela 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Santiago de Compostela 35: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Santiago de Compostela 64: Antigua Guatemala leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Santiago de Compostela 40: Santiago de Compostela leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala and Santiago de Compostela are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Santiago de Compostela.

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 shopping with your weighting.

Santiago de Compostela
Best match
54match

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

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaSantiago de Compostela

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). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSantiago de Compostela
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 m260 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSantiago de Compostela
City population59,091100,965
People per km²-459
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala or Santiago de Compostela 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.