VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Ghent or Santiago?

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

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Santiago for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Ghent leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Santiago 60: Ghent leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Santiago 52: Ghent leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 48 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Santiago 70: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Santiago 57: Santiago leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Santiago 68: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Santiago 58: Santiago leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Santiago 55: Ghent leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Santiago 37: Santiago leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Santiago.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Ghent
54match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Santiago
55match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
GhentSantiago

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.

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). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentSantiago
Official languageFrench, German, DutchSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation12 m575 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentSantiago
City population272,6576,257,516
People per km²1,7287,468
Museums within 10 km3054
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
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 Santiago 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.