VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
SofiaThe Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sofia by Jose Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or Sofia?

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
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Sofia for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Sofia’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, Sofia 5: Antigua Guatemala leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Sofia 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Sofia 60: Antigua Guatemala leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Sofia 80: Sofia leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Sofia 60: Sofia leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Sofia 40: Sofia leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Sofia 65: Sofia leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Sofia 38: Antigua Guatemala leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Sofia 78: Sofia leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Sofia 45: Sofia 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 Sofia.

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 shopping with your weighting.

Sofia
Best match
51match

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

Sofia in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
64 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaSofia

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). Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSofia
Official languageSpanishBulgarian
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123112
Elevation1,582 m560 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre97 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSofia
City population59,0911,213,134
People per km²-2,466
Museums within 10 km242
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

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