VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Biarritz or San Miguel de Allende?

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 Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’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. Biarritz 68, San Miguel de Allende 4: Biarritz leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz and San Miguel de Allende are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, San Miguel de Allende 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, San Miguel de Allende 40: Biarritz leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, San Miguel de Allende 77: Biarritz leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, San Miguel de Allende 32: Biarritz leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, San Miguel de Allende 48: Biarritz leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, San Miguel de Allende 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Biarritz
Best match
54match

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

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BiarritzSan Miguel de Allende

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageFrenchSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m1,900 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzSan Miguel de Allende
City population26,20669,811
People per km²2,240-
Museums within 10 km82
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz or San Miguel de Allende 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.