VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

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

Barcelona or Santiago?

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
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Santiago for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Barcelona leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Santiago 60: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Santiago 52: Barcelona leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Santiago 60: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Santiago 70: Barcelona leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Santiago 57: Barcelona leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Santiago 68: Barcelona leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Santiago 52: Barcelona leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Santiago 58: Santiago leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Santiago 55: Barcelona leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Santiago 37: Barcelona leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Santiago.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Santiago
55match

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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaSantiago

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaSantiago
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation9 m575 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaSantiago
City population1,731,6496,257,516
People per km²17,0947,468
Museums within 10 km9554
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Santiago 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.