VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
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: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

New York 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 New York for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • 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. New York 50, San Miguel de Allende 4: New York leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, San Miguel de Allende 62: New York leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, San Miguel de Allende 62: New York leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, San Miguel de Allende 38: New York leads by 59 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, San Miguel de Allende 40: New York leads by 15 points.
Day trips. New York 68, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 9 points.
Good for families. New York 70, San Miguel de Allende 32: New York leads by 38 points.
Getting around. New York 82, San Miguel de Allende 48: New York leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, San Miguel de Allende 55: New York leads by 42 points.
Affordability. New York 12, San Miguel de Allende 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, San Miguel de Allende 40: New York leads by 59 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 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: New York and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on prices 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.

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °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
New YorkSan 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. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkSan 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-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation25 m1,900 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkSan Miguel de Allende
City population8,804,19069,811
People per km²7,256-
Museums within 10 km1572
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 New York 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.