VacationSelector
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas
Palm Springs

Photos: Guadalajara by Ponchomx, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Guadalajara or Palm Springs?

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
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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 5, Palm Springs 7: Palm Springs leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Guadalajara 75, Palm Springs 40: Guadalajara leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Guadalajara 62, Palm Springs 42: Guadalajara leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Guadalajara 68, Palm Springs 36: Guadalajara leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guadalajara 55, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Guadalajara 66, Palm Springs 38: Guadalajara leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Guadalajara 55, Palm Springs 40: Guadalajara leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Guadalajara 40, Palm Springs 22: Guadalajara leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Guadalajara 60, Palm Springs 44: Guadalajara leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Guadalajara 78, Palm Springs 32: Guadalajara leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guadalajara 60, Palm Springs 40: Guadalajara leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guadalajara 35, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 45 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guadalajara and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Guadalajara
Best match
55match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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
13 hdaylight a day

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GuadalajaraPalm Springs

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.

Palm Springs 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. Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuadalajaraPalm Springs
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,536 m146 m
Main airportGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGuadalajaraPalm Springs
City population1,385,62144,575
People per km²9,556181
Museums within 10 km173
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Guadalajara or Palm Springs 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. 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.