VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Arequipa or Fes?

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

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Fes for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Fes’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, Fes 5: Arequipa leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Fes 62: Arequipa leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Fes 80: Fes leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Fes 12: Arequipa leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Fes 52: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Fes 62: Fes leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Fes 22: Arequipa leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Fes 40: Arequipa leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Fes 68: Fes leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Fes 80: Arequipa leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Fes 32: Fes leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Fes 70: Fes leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Fes.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

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

Fes
Best match
49match

Wins on wellness 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
11 hdaylight a day

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaFes

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.

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaFes
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencySol (PEN)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1
Emergency number111 or 911Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation2,335 m408 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaFes
City population1,008,2901,167,842
People per km²1,5513,650
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

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