VacationSelector
The pyramids of Giza, Cairo
CairoThe pyramids of Giza
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: Cairo by Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cairo 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 Cairo for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • day trips

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. Cairo 10, San Miguel de Allende 4: Cairo leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Cairo 60, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cairo 96, San Miguel de Allende 62: Cairo leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Cairo 48, San Miguel de Allende 38: Cairo leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairo 30, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cairo 66, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Cairo and San Miguel de Allende are level on 32.
Getting around. Cairo 35, San Miguel de Allende 48: San Miguel de Allende leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Cairo 58, San Miguel de Allende 55: Cairo leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Cairo 95, San Miguel de Allende 50: Cairo leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairo 50, San Miguel de Allende 40: Cairo leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairo 15, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 51 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairo and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cairo
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cairo in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
14 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
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CairoSan 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. Cairo: 1991-2020 normals, Helwan (21.9 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairoSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageArabicSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180911
Elevation23 m1,900 m
Main airportCairo International Airport (CAI)17 km from centre127 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairoSan Miguel de Allende
City population9,801,53669,811
People per km²18,564-
Museums within 10 km482
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairo 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. 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.