VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or Santiago?

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

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Santiago for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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 12: Santiago leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Santiago 52: Antigua Guatemala leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Santiago 70: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Santiago 57: Santiago leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Santiago 68: Santiago leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Santiago 58: Antigua Guatemala leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Santiago 55: Santiago leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Santiago 37: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Santiago.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on live music and the arts 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
13 hdaylight a day

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaSantiago

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: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSantiago
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation1,582 m575 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSantiago
City population59,0916,257,516
People per km²-7,468
Museums within 10 km254
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

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