VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Guadalajara for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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. Galway 28, Guadalajara 5: Galway leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Guadalajara 75: Guadalajara leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Guadalajara 62: Guadalajara leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Guadalajara 68: Guadalajara leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Guadalajara 55: Galway leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Guadalajara 66: Guadalajara leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Guadalajara 55: Guadalajara leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Guadalajara 40: Galway leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Guadalajara 78: Guadalajara leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Guadalajara 60: Guadalajara leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Guadalajara 35: Guadalajara leads by 7 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Guadalajara.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

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

Guadalajara
Best match
55match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayGuadalajara

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureGalwayGuadalajara
Official languageEnglish, IrishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation25 m1,536 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayGuadalajara
City population83,4561,385,621
People per km²1,5639,556
Museums within 10 km417
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway 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). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.