VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Galway or Quito?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Quito for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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, Quito 5: Galway leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Quito 54: Quito leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Quito 77: Quito leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Quito 40: Galway leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Quito 86: Quito leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Quito 55: Galway leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Quito 32: Galway leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Quito 45: Galway leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Quito 40: Quito leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Quito 78: Quito leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Quito 38: Galway leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Quito 44: Quito leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Quito.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

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

Quito
Best match
50match

Wins on prices 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.

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayQuito

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.

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayQuito
Official languageEnglish, IrishSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation25 m2,850 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayQuito
City population83,4561,763,275
People per km²1,5634,735
Museums within 10 km416
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 Quito 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.