VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
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: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Manila 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 Manila for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • getting around

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. Manila 12, San Miguel de Allende 4: Manila leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, San Miguel de Allende 62: Manila leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, San Miguel de Allende 38: Manila leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila and San Miguel de Allende are level on 40.
Day trips. Manila 42, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Manila 42, San Miguel de Allende 32: Manila leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Manila 26, San Miguel de Allende 48: San Miguel de Allende leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, San Miguel de Allende 55: Manila leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, San Miguel de Allende 50: Manila leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, San Miguel de Allende 40: Manila leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila 40, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manila and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Manila
48match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on day trips 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.

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaSan 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. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManilaSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation9 m1,900 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureManilaSan Miguel de Allende
City population1,902,59069,811
People per km²76,104-
Museums within 10 km272
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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