VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
A heritage tram before the Regent building, Christchurch
ChristchurchA heritage tram before the Regent building

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Christchurch by Bernard Spragg. NZ, CC0.

Arequipa or Christchurch?

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
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Christchurch for

  • families
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Christchurch’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, Christchurch 38: Christchurch leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Christchurch 45: Arequipa leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Christchurch 38: Arequipa leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Christchurch 32: Arequipa leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Christchurch 84: Christchurch leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Christchurch 45: Christchurch leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Christchurch 66: Christchurch leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Christchurch 48: Arequipa leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Christchurch 32: Arequipa leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Christchurch 38: Arequipa leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Christchurch 38: Christchurch leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Christchurch 45: Christchurch leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Christchurch.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Christchurch
46match

Wins on families and beaches 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

Christchurch in July

11 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
9 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaChristchurch

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). Christchurch: 1991-2020 normals, Christchurch (8.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaChristchurch
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencySol (PEN)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911111
Elevation2,335 m20 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsChristchurch International Airport (CHC)10 km from centre28 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaChristchurch
City population1,008,290383,200
People per km²1,5511,298
Museums within 10 km311
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Christchurch 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.