VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License.

Arequipa or Cape Town?

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

  • getting around
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Cape Town for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Cape Town’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, Cape Town 58: Cape Town leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Cape Town 72: Cape Town leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Cape Town 60: Arequipa leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Cape Town 60: Cape Town leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Cape Town 98: Cape Town leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Cape Town 68: Cape Town leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Cape Town 58: Cape Town leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Cape Town 35: Arequipa leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Cape Town 50: Cape Town leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Cape Town 72: Arequipa leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Cape Town 52: Cape Town leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Cape Town 45: Cape Town leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Cape Town.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

Cape Town
Best match
61match

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

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaCape Town

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). Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaCape Town
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencySol (PEN)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation2,335 m5 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaCape Town
City population1,008,2903,776,313
People per km²1,5511,538
Museums within 10 km322
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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