VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
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: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Ghent 25, San Miguel de Allende 4: Ghent leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Ghent and San Miguel de Allende are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, San Miguel de Allende 62: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, San Miguel de Allende 38: Ghent leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, San Miguel de Allende 77: Ghent leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, San Miguel de Allende 32: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, San Miguel de Allende 48: Ghent leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, San Miguel de Allende 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, San Miguel de Allende 40: Ghent leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 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: Ghent and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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
GhentSan Miguel de Allende

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

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. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageFrench, German, DutchSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation12 m1,900 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentSan Miguel de Allende
City population272,65769,811
People per km²1,728-
Museums within 10 km302
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km52
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or San Miguel de Allende somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.