VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License.

Arequipa or Colombo?

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
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Colombo for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Colombo’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, Colombo 55: Colombo leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa and Colombo are level on 66.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Colombo 45: Arequipa leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Colombo 35: Arequipa leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Colombo 32: Arequipa leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Colombo 50: Colombo leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Arequipa and Colombo are level on 35.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Colombo 35: Arequipa leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Colombo 45: Colombo leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Colombo 78: Arequipa leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Colombo 30: Colombo leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Colombo 48: Colombo leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Colombo.

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 nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Colombo
46match

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaColombo

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). Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaColombo
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaTamil, Sinhala
CurrencySol (PEN)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+5:30
Emergency number111 or 911Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation2,335 m1 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days-

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaColombo
City population1,008,290647,557
People per km²1,55117,361
Museums within 10 km310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

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