VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
La Paz

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

Buenos Aires or La Paz?

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
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose La Paz for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on La Paz’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, La Paz 3: Buenos Aires leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, La Paz 50: Buenos Aires leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, La Paz 52: Buenos Aires leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, La Paz 38: Buenos Aires leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, La Paz 82: La Paz leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, La Paz 40: Buenos Aires leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, La Paz 10: Buenos Aires leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, La Paz 45: Buenos Aires leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, La Paz 45: Buenos Aires leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, La Paz 92: La Paz leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, La Paz 35: Buenos Aires leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, La Paz 12: Buenos Aires leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Buenos Aires and La Paz.

Your match

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

Buenos Aires
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife and families with your weighting.

La Paz
42match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

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

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Buenos AiresLa Paz

Where the figures come from

La Paz 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). La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresLa Paz
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Boliviano (BOB)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAC50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-4
Emergency number117 or 911911
Elevation25 m3,640 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresLa Paz
City population3,121,707755,732
People per km²15,3551,601
Museums within 10 km7621
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 La Paz 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.