VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
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: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Faro 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 Faro for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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. Faro 74, San Miguel de Allende 4: Faro leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, San Miguel de Allende 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, San Miguel de Allende 40: Faro leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, San Miguel de Allende 32: Faro leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, San Miguel de Allende 48: Faro leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, San Miguel de Allende 50: Faro leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 33 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro 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

Faro
49match

Wins on beaches and families 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.

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
FaroSan 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. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroSan Miguel de Allende
Official languagePortugueseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation10 m1,900 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroSan Miguel de Allende
City population64,56069,811
People per km²319-
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Faro 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.