VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Buenos Aires or Chengdu?

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 Buenos Aires for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Chengdu for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Chengdu’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. Buenos Aires 7, Chengdu 5: Buenos Aires leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, Chengdu 86: Chengdu leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Chengdu 60: Buenos Aires leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Chengdu 68: Buenos Aires leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Chengdu 68: Chengdu leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Chengdu 65: Chengdu leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Chengdu 74: Chengdu leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, Chengdu 64: Chengdu leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Chengdu 50: Buenos Aires leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, Chengdu 58: Chengdu leads by 30 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Buenos Aires and Chengdu.

Your match

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

Buenos Aires
57match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Chengdu
Best match
63match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Buenos AiresChengdu

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresChengdu
Official languageSpanishPutonghua
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+8
Emergency number117 or 911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation25 m500 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresChengdu
City population3,121,70720,937,757
People per km²15,3551,456
Museums within 10 km7610
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Buenos Aires or Chengdu 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). 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.