VacationSelector
Vine rows before the snow-capped Andes in the Uco Valley, Mendoza
MendozaVine rows before the snow-capped Andes in the Uco Valley
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: Mendoza by David, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Mendoza 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 Mendoza for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • food and drink

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • shopping

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. Mendoza 6, San Miguel de Allende 4: Mendoza leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Mendoza 68, San Miguel de Allende 62: Mendoza leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Mendoza 30, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Mendoza 40, San Miguel de Allende 38: Mendoza leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mendoza 83, San Miguel de Allende 40: Mendoza leads by 43 points.
Day trips. Mendoza 52, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Mendoza 42, San Miguel de Allende 32: Mendoza leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Mendoza and San Miguel de Allende are level on 48.
Shopping & style. Mendoza 33, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Mendoza 56, San Miguel de Allende 50: Mendoza leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mendoza 33, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mendoza 55, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mendoza 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, 2 points apart

Mendoza
46match

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

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on culture and sights and 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.

Mendoza in July

15 °Cdaytime high
2 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
10 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MendozaSan 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. Mendoza: 1991-2020 normals, Mendoza Aerodrome (8.5 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMendozaSan Miguel de Allende
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-6
Emergency number117 or 911911
Elevation769 m1,900 m
Main airportGovernor Francisco Gabrielli International Airport (MDZ)8 km from centre5 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMendozaSan Miguel de Allende
City population127,16069,811
People per km²2,355-
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

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