VacationSelector
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque
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: Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Istanbul 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 Istanbul for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • day trips

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. Istanbul 45, San Miguel de Allende 4: Istanbul leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Istanbul 87, San Miguel de Allende 62: Istanbul leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Istanbul 90, San Miguel de Allende 62: Istanbul leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Istanbul 77, San Miguel de Allende 38: Istanbul leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Istanbul 52, San Miguel de Allende 40: Istanbul leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Istanbul 55, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Istanbul 55, San Miguel de Allende 32: Istanbul leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Istanbul 62, San Miguel de Allende 48: Istanbul leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Istanbul 86, San Miguel de Allende 55: Istanbul leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Istanbul 60, San Miguel de Allende 50: Istanbul leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Istanbul 62, San Miguel de Allende 40: Istanbul leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Istanbul 75, San Miguel de Allende 66: Istanbul leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Istanbul and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 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
IstanbulSan 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. Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureIstanbulSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageTurkishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation100 m1,900 m
Main airportİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureIstanbulSan Miguel de Allende
City population15,655,92469,811
People per km²2,930-
Museums within 10 km732
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Istanbul 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. 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). 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.