VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
Philae temple on the Nile, Aswan
AswanPhilae temple on the Nile

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Aswan by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Arequipa or Aswan?

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 Arequipa for

  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Aswan for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Aswan’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. Arequipa 8, Aswan 10: Aswan leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Aswan 30: Arequipa leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa and Aswan are level on 64.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Aswan 8: Arequipa leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Aswan 45: Arequipa leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Aswan 52: Aswan leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Aswan 32: Arequipa leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Aswan 40: Arequipa leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Aswan 30: Arequipa leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Aswan 92: Aswan leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Aswan 14: Arequipa leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Aswan 40: Aswan leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Aswan.

Your match

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

Arequipa
Best match
46match

Wins on food and drink and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Aswan
38match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Aswan in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

010203040JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaAswan

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Aswan: 1991-2020 normals, Asswan (18 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaAswan
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaArabic
CurrencySol (PEN)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation2,335 m99 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsAswan International Airport (ASW)16 km from centre2 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaAswan
City population1,008,290401,890
People per km²1,5511,072
Museums within 10 km33
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 Arequipa or Aswan 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.