VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Arequipa or Thessaloniki?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Thessaloniki leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Thessaloniki 66: Arequipa leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Thessaloniki 66: Arequipa leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Thessaloniki 52: Thessaloniki leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Thessaloniki 33: Arequipa leads by 1 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Thessaloniki.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

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

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaThessaloniki

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). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaThessaloniki
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaGreek
CurrencySol (PEN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation2,335 m6 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaThessaloniki
City population1,008,290309,617
People per km²1,55116,042
Museums within 10 km332
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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