VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Arequipa or Barcelona?

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

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Barcelona’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, Barcelona 75: Barcelona leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Barcelona 82: Barcelona leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Barcelona 86: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Barcelona 82: Barcelona leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Barcelona 72: Arequipa leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Barcelona 80: Barcelona leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Barcelona 76: Barcelona leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Barcelona 80: Barcelona leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Barcelona 75: Barcelona leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Barcelona 44: Arequipa leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Barcelona 70: Barcelona leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Barcelona 38: Barcelona leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Barcelona.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaBarcelona

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). Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaBarcelona
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation2,335 m9 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaBarcelona
City population1,008,2901,731,649
People per km²1,55117,094
Museums within 10 km395
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Arequipa or Barcelona 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.