VacationSelector
The Cathedral of Sant'Agata, Catania
CataniaThe Cathedral of Sant'Agata
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Catania by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Catania or Santiago?

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 Catania for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose Santiago for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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. Catania 72, Santiago 12: Catania leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Catania 77, Santiago 60: Catania leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Catania 62, Santiago 52: Catania leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Catania and Santiago are level on 60.
Nature & outdoors. Catania and Santiago are level on 83.
Day trips. Catania 84, Santiago 70: Catania leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Catania 50, Santiago 57: Santiago leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Catania 48, Santiago 68: Santiago leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Catania 42, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Catania 60, Santiago 58: Catania leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Catania and Santiago are level on 55.
Wellness & relaxation. Catania 30, Santiago 37: Santiago leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Catania and Santiago.

Your match

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

Catania
Best match
60match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Santiago
55match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Catania in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
CataniaSantiago

Where the figures come from

Catania's sunshine is measured 88 km from the centre, at Messina.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Fontanarossa (5.2 km from centre). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCataniaSantiago
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation7 m575 m
Main airportCatania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre96 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCataniaSantiago
City population311,5846,257,516
People per km²1,7047,468
Museums within 10 km2554
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Catania or Santiago 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.