VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The Great Mosque with the mountains behind, Tirana
TiranaThe Great Mosque with the mountains behind

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tirana by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Arequipa or Tirana?

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

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

Choose Tirana for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Tirana’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, Tirana 46: Tirana leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Tirana 57: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Tirana 42: Arequipa leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Tirana 58: Tirana leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Tirana 62: Arequipa leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Tirana 64: Tirana leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Tirana 40: Tirana leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Arequipa and Tirana are level on 54.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Tirana 32: Arequipa leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Tirana 76: Arequipa leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Tirana 32: Tirana leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Tirana 27: Arequipa leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Tirana.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tirana
Best match
49match

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

Tirana in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
43 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaTirana

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). Tirana: 1961-1990 normals, Tirana (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaTirana
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaAlbanian
CurrencySol (PEN)Lek (ALL)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation2,335 m110 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsTirana International Airport Mother Teresa (TIA)13 km from centre121 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaTirana
City population1,008,290389,323
People per km²1,5519,314
Museums within 10 km311
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Tirana 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.