VacationSelector
Château Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace, Quebec City
Quebec CityChâteau Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace
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: Quebec City by Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Quebec City 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 Quebec City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose San Miguel de Allende for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • 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. Quebec City 18, San Miguel de Allende 4: Quebec City leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Quebec City 57, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Quebec City 70, San Miguel de Allende 62: Quebec City leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Quebec City 42, San Miguel de Allende 38: Quebec City leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quebec City 79, San Miguel de Allende 40: Quebec City leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Quebec City 58, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Quebec City 64, San Miguel de Allende 32: Quebec City leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Quebec City 50, San Miguel de Allende 48: Quebec City leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Quebec City 45, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Quebec City 45, San Miguel de Allende 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quebec City 52, San Miguel de Allende 40: Quebec City leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quebec City 55, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 11 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quebec City and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

Quebec City
Best match
53match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families 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.

Quebec City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
16 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Quebec CitySan 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. Quebec City: 1991-2020 normals, Beauport (3.2 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuebec CitySan Miguel de Allende
Official languageFrench, EnglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation98 m1,900 m
Main airportQuebec Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB)13 km from centre34 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuebec CitySan Miguel de Allende
City population574,48269,811
People per km²1,184-
Museums within 10 km162
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

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