VacationSelector
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens
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: Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Malaga 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 Malaga for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • wellness

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. Malaga 77, San Miguel de Allende 4: Malaga leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Malaga 68, San Miguel de Allende 62: Malaga leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Malaga 65, San Miguel de Allende 62: Malaga leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Malaga 62, San Miguel de Allende 38: Malaga leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Malaga 73, San Miguel de Allende 40: Malaga leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Malaga 87, San Miguel de Allende 77: Malaga leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Malaga 70, San Miguel de Allende 32: Malaga leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Malaga 70, San Miguel de Allende 48: Malaga leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Malaga and San Miguel de Allende are level on 55.
Affordability. Malaga 55, San Miguel de Allende 50: Malaga leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Malaga 45, San Miguel de Allende 40: Malaga leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Malaga 42, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Malaga and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Malaga
Best match
64match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °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
MalagaSan 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. Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMalagaSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation18 m1,900 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMalagaSan Miguel de Allende
City population599,06369,811
People per km²1,517-
Museums within 10 km322
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 Malaga 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.