VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
La Paz

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Barcelona or La Paz?

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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose La Paz for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on La Paz’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. Barcelona 75, La Paz 3: Barcelona leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, La Paz 50: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, La Paz 52: Barcelona leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, La Paz 38: Barcelona leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, La Paz 82: La Paz leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, La Paz 40: Barcelona leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, La Paz 10: Barcelona leads by 66 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, La Paz 45: Barcelona leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, La Paz 45: Barcelona leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, La Paz 92: La Paz leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, La Paz 35: Barcelona leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, La Paz 12: Barcelona leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and La Paz.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

La Paz
42match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaLa Paz

Where the figures come from

La Paz 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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaLa Paz
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Boliviano (BOB)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAC50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number112911
Elevation9 m3,640 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaLa Paz
City population1,731,649755,732
People per km²17,0941,601
Museums within 10 km9521
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona or La Paz 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.