Barcelona or Mexico City?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and year-round weather with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Barcelona leads by 65 points.65
| Barcelona | Mexico City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 3 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 20 | 4 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 247 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | — |
Places to eat. Barcelona leads by 24 points.24
| Barcelona | Mexico City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 66 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 3,786 | 2,179 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 41 | 15 |
Museums & heritage. Mexico City leads by 11 points.11
| Barcelona | Mexico City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 79 |
| Museums within 10 km | 105 | 138 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 49 | 65 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 47 | 47 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 6 |
Nightlife. Barcelona leads by 4 points.4
| Barcelona | Mexico City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 82 | 78 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 2,711 | 2,156 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,641 | 926 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 61 | 43 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 245 | 198 |
Nature & day trips. Mexico City leads by 13 points.13
| Barcelona | Mexico City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 63 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 10 | 30 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 49 hectares | 32 hectares |
Good for families. Barcelona leads by 15 points.15
| Barcelona | Mexico City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 50 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 60 | 23 |
| Park area within 2 km | 49 hectares | 32 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Barcelona leads by 19 points.19
| Barcelona | Mexico City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 54 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 258 | 88 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Mexico City leads by 5 points.5
| Barcelona | Mexico City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 76 |
| Price level global | 60.8 | 54.2 |
| Daily budget | €122 | — |
Year-round weather. Mexico City leads by 12 points.12
| Barcelona | Mexico City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 90 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.9 °C to 28.9 °C | 22.2 °C to 27.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 27 mm to 83 mm | 3 mm to 186 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 6 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Mexico City: 1991-2020 normals, Mexico Central, D. F. (7.9 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Barcelona | Mexico City |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 0 m €37-96 BCN · 13 km | 11 h 10 m no fares MEX · 7 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €79-101 BCN · 13 km | 11 h 30 m no fares MEX · 7 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 15 m €114-118 BCN · 13 km | 11 h 20 m no fares MEX · 7 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 55 m €562-701 BCN · 13 km | 4 h 40 m €335-379 MEX · 7 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 40 m €54-89 BCN · 13 km | 12 h 40 m no fares MEX · 7 km |
| CancunCUN | 10 h 35 m no fares BCN · 13 km | 2 h 10 m €123-162 MEX · 7 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 10 m €132-158 BCN · 13 km | 11 h 30 m no fares MEX · 7 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 12 h 5 m no fares BCN · 13 km | 3 h 35 m €248-282 1 stop MEX · 7 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 45 m €369-388 BCN · 13 km | 17 h 30 m €1,075-1211 2 stops MEX · 7 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 11 h 55 m €459-799 2 stops BCN · 13 km | 14 h 55 m no fares MEX · 7 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Barcelona | Mexico City |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Mexican Peso (MXN) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | AB127 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC-6 |
| Emergency number | 112 | 911 |
| Elevation | 9 m | 2,240 m |
| Main airport | Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre229 non-stop destinations | Mexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)7 km from centre95 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 9 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Barcelona | Mexico City |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,731,649 | 9,209,944 |
| People per km² | 17,094 | 6,202 |
| Museums within 10 km | 95 | 108 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 6 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 128 | 50 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 3 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona or Mexico City somewhere new.