VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
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: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • 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. Los Angeles 60, San Miguel de Allende 4: Los Angeles leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, San Miguel de Allende 62: Los Angeles leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, San Miguel de Allende 62: Los Angeles leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, San Miguel de Allende 38: Los Angeles leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, San Miguel de Allende 40: Los Angeles leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, San Miguel de Allende 32: Los Angeles leads by 52 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, San Miguel de Allende 48: San Miguel de Allende leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, San Miguel de Allende 55: Los Angeles leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, San Miguel de Allende 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, San Miguel de Allende 40: Los Angeles leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
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
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesSan 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. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesSan Miguel de Allende
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation106 m1,900 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesSan Miguel de Allende
City population3,898,74769,811
People per km²2,994-
Museums within 10 km392
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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