VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Arequipa or Buenos Aires?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Buenos Aires for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Buenos Aires’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, Buenos Aires 7: Arequipa leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Buenos Aires 75: Buenos Aires leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Buenos Aires 71: Buenos Aires leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Buenos Aires 95: Buenos Aires leads by 59 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Buenos Aires 38: Arequipa leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Buenos Aires 60: Buenos Aires leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Buenos Aires 52: Buenos Aires leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Buenos Aires 62: Buenos Aires leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Buenos Aires 60: Buenos Aires leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Buenos Aires 55: Arequipa leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Buenos Aires 75: Buenos Aires leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Buenos Aires 28: Arequipa leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Buenos Aires.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

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

Buenos Aires
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife 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.

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

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaBuenos Aires

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). Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaBuenos Aires
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency number111 or 911117 or 911
Elevation2,335 m25 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaBuenos Aires
City population1,008,2903,121,707
People per km²1,55115,355
Museums within 10 km376
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

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