VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
Palm Springs

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Arequipa or Palm Springs?

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
  • getting around
  • food and drink

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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, Palm Springs 7: Arequipa leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Palm Springs 40: Arequipa leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Palm Springs 42: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa and Palm Springs are level on 36.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Palm Springs 38: Palm Springs leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Palm Springs 22: Arequipa leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa and Palm Springs are level on 44.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Palm Springs 32: Arequipa leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 46 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Arequipa
Best match
46match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness 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

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

010203040JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaPalm Springs

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.

Palm Springs 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaPalm Springs
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua-
CurrencySol (PEN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation2,335 m146 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaPalm Springs
City population1,008,29044,575
People per km²1,551181
Museums within 10 km33
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

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