VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas

Photos: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cebu 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 Cebu for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Guadalajara for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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. Cebu 60, Guadalajara 5: Cebu leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Guadalajara 75: Guadalajara leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, Guadalajara 62: Guadalajara leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, Guadalajara 68: Guadalajara leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu 60, Guadalajara 55: Cebu leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Guadalajara 66: Guadalajara leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, Guadalajara 55: Guadalajara leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Guadalajara 40: Guadalajara leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Guadalajara 78: Cebu leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Guadalajara 35: Cebu leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and Guadalajara.

Your match

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

Cebu
48match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Guadalajara
Best match
55match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Guadalajara in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CebuGuadalajara

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. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCebuGuadalajara
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation135 m1,536 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuGuadalajara
City population965,3321,385,621
People per km²3,0659,556
Museums within 10 km517
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cebu 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.