VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Galway or Guilin?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Guilin for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Guilin’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, Guilin 8: Galway leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Galway and Guilin are level on 45.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Guilin 40: Guilin leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Guilin 30: Galway leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Guilin 88: Guilin leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Galway and Guilin are level on 56.
Good for families. Galway 42, Guilin 45: Guilin leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Guilin 45: Galway leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Guilin 28: Galway leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Guilin 78: Guilin leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Guilin 30: Galway leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Guilin 40: Guilin leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Guilin.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Galway
45match

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

Guilin
44match

Wins on prices and wellness 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

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayGuilin

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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayGuilin
Official languageEnglish, IrishPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation25 m153 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayGuilin
City population83,4564,931,137
People per km²1,563-
Museums within 10 km41
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Guilin 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.