VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Arequipa or Paphos?

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
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Paphos for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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, Paphos 76: Paphos leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Paphos 45: Arequipa leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Paphos 62: Arequipa leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Paphos 38: Paphos leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Paphos 70: Arequipa leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Paphos 64: Paphos leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Paphos 40: Arequipa leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Paphos 25: Arequipa leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Paphos 52: Arequipa leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Paphos 22: Arequipa leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Paphos 42: Paphos leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Paphos.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Paphos
Best match
50match

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 seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaPaphos

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.

Paphos 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). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaPaphos
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencySol (PEN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation2,335 m72 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaPaphos
City population1,008,29035,961
People per km²1,5511,987
Museums within 10 km34
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Arequipa or Paphos 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.