VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Buenos Aires or Guadalajara?

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
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Guadalajara for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Guadalajara’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, Guadalajara 5: Buenos Aires leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires and Guadalajara are level on 75.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Guadalajara 62: Buenos Aires leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Guadalajara 68: Buenos Aires leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Guadalajara 55: Guadalajara leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Guadalajara 66: Guadalajara leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Guadalajara 55: Guadalajara leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Guadalajara 40: Buenos Aires leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires and Guadalajara are level on 60.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, Guadalajara 78: Guadalajara leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Guadalajara 60: Buenos Aires leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, Guadalajara 35: Guadalajara leads by 7 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Buenos Aires
57match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Guadalajara
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.

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

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Buenos AiresGuadalajara

Where the figures come from

Guadalajara 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. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresGuadalajara
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-6
Emergency number117 or 911911
Elevation25 m1,536 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresGuadalajara
City population3,121,7071,385,621
People per km²15,3559,556
Museums within 10 km7617
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Guadalajara 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.