VacationSelector
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake
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: Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Guilin 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 Guilin for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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. Guilin 8, San Miguel de Allende 4: Guilin leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Guilin 45, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Guilin 40, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Guilin 30, San Miguel de Allende 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guilin 88, San Miguel de Allende 40: Guilin leads by 48 points.
Day trips. Guilin 56, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Guilin 45, San Miguel de Allende 32: Guilin leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Guilin 45, San Miguel de Allende 48: San Miguel de Allende leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Guilin 28, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Guilin 78, San Miguel de Allende 50: Guilin leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guilin 30, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guilin 40, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 26 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guilin and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Guilin
44match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
Best match
48match

Wins on shopping and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 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
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
GuilinSan Miguel de Allende

Where the figures come from

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. Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuilinSan Miguel de Allende
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation153 m1,900 m
Main airportGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureGuilinSan Miguel de Allende
City population4,931,13769,811
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

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