VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License.

Buenos Aires or Philadelphia?

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
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Philadelphia for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Philadelphia’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, Philadelphia 36: Philadelphia leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, Philadelphia 62: Buenos Aires leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Philadelphia 55: Buenos Aires leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Philadelphia 52: Philadelphia leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Philadelphia 80: Philadelphia leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Philadelphia 68: Philadelphia leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Philadelphia 66: Philadelphia leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, Philadelphia 57: Buenos Aires leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, Philadelphia 40: Buenos Aires leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Philadelphia 72: Buenos Aires leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, Philadelphia 26: Buenos Aires leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Buenos Aires and Philadelphia.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Buenos Aires
57match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Philadelphia
57match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Buenos AiresPhiladelphia

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). Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresPhiladelphia
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number117 or 911911
Elevation25 m12 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresPhiladelphia
City population3,121,7071,603,797
People per km²15,3554,339
Museums within 10 km7654
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 Philadelphia 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.