VacationSelector
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Guadalajara or Madrid?

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 Guadalajara for

  • prices

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

Choose Madrid for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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. Guadalajara and Madrid are level on 5.
Food & drink. Guadalajara 75, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Guadalajara 62, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Guadalajara 68, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guadalajara 55, Madrid 60: Madrid leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Guadalajara 66, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Guadalajara 55, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Guadalajara 40, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Guadalajara 60, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Guadalajara 78, Madrid 50: Guadalajara leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guadalajara 60, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guadalajara 35, Madrid 36: Madrid leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guadalajara and Madrid.

Your match

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

Guadalajara
55match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around 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.

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GuadalajaraMadrid

Where the figures come from

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. Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuadalajaraMadrid
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation1,536 m663 m
Main airportGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureGuadalajaraMadrid
City population1,385,6213,506,730
People per km²9,5565,801
Museums within 10 km1788
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Guadalajara or Madrid somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.