VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
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: Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chengdu 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 Chengdu for

  • families
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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. Chengdu 5, San Miguel de Allende 4: Chengdu leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, San Miguel de Allende 62: Chengdu leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, San Miguel de Allende 38: Chengdu leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu 68, San Miguel de Allende 40: Chengdu leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, San Miguel de Allende 77: Chengdu leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, San Miguel de Allende 32: Chengdu leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, San Miguel de Allende 48: Chengdu leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, San Miguel de Allende 55: Chengdu leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, San Miguel de Allende 50: Chengdu leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, San Miguel de Allende 40: Chengdu leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on families and nightlife with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on wellness 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.

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChengduSan 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. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChengduSan Miguel de Allende
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation500 m1,900 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureChengduSan Miguel de Allende
City population20,937,75769,811
People per km²1,456-
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

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