VacationSelector
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach
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: Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Destin 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 Destin for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • wellness

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. Destin 86, San Miguel de Allende 4: Destin leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Destin 42, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Destin 14, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Destin 36, San Miguel de Allende 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Destin 56, San Miguel de Allende 40: Destin leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Destin 44, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Destin 72, San Miguel de Allende 32: Destin leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Destin 20, San Miguel de Allende 48: San Miguel de Allende leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Destin 40, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Destin 34, San Miguel de Allende 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Destin 20, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Destin 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: Destin and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Destin
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
Best match
48match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Destin in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
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
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DestinSan Miguel de Allende

Where the figures come from

Destin 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.

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. Destin: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Destin (0.8 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDestinSan Miguel de Allende
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m1,900 m
Main airportDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureDestinSan Miguel de Allende
City population13,93169,811
People per km²636-
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Destin 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. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.