VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Guadalajara for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Colombo 55, Guadalajara 5: Colombo leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Guadalajara 75: Guadalajara leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Guadalajara 62: Guadalajara leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Guadalajara 68: Guadalajara leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Guadalajara 55: Guadalajara leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Guadalajara 66: Guadalajara leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Guadalajara 55: Guadalajara leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Guadalajara 40: Guadalajara leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Colombo and Guadalajara are level on 78.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Guadalajara 35: Colombo leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Guadalajara.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Guadalajara
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Guadalajara in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboGuadalajara

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureColomboGuadalajara
Official languageTamil, SinhalaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m1,536 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboGuadalajara
City population647,5571,385,621
People per km²17,3619,556
Museums within 10 km1017
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 Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.