VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
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: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cusco 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 Cusco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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. Cusco 3, San Miguel de Allende 4: San Miguel de Allende leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, San Miguel de Allende 62: Cusco leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, San Miguel de Allende 38: Cusco leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, San Miguel de Allende 40: Cusco leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, San Miguel de Allende 77: Cusco leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, San Miguel de Allende 32: San Miguel de Allende leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Cusco and San Miguel de Allende are level on 48.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, San Miguel de Allende 50: Cusco leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco 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, 1 point apart

Cusco
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
11 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CuscoSan Miguel de Allende

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

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. Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencySol (PEN)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation3,399 m1,900 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoSan Miguel de Allende
City population428,45069,811
Museums within 10 km112
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 Cusco 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.