VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Antigua Guatemala or Sydney?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 89 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Sydney 60: Antigua Guatemala leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Sydney 50: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Sydney 22: Antigua Guatemala leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 51 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Sydney.

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.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaSydney

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). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSydney
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123000
Elevation1,582 m6 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaSydney
City population59,0915,450,496
People per km²-449
Museums within 10 km238
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

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