VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Arequipa or Guadalajara?

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
  • getting around
  • prices

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

Choose Guadalajara for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Guadalajara’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, Guadalajara 5: Arequipa leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Guadalajara 75: Guadalajara leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Guadalajara 62: Arequipa leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Guadalajara 68: Guadalajara leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Guadalajara 55: Arequipa leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Guadalajara 66: Guadalajara leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Guadalajara 55: Guadalajara leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Guadalajara 40: Arequipa leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Guadalajara 78: Arequipa leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Guadalajara 35: Guadalajara leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Guadalajara.

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 getting around with your weighting.

Guadalajara
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips 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
11 hdaylight a day

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaGuadalajara

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.

Guadalajara has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureArequipaGuadalajara
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencySol (PEN)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation2,335 m1,536 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaGuadalajara
City population1,008,2901,385,621
People per km²1,5519,556
Museums within 10 km317
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Arequipa or Guadalajara 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.