VacationSelector
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park
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: San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

San Diego 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 San Diego for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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. San Diego 72, San Miguel de Allende 4: San Diego leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. San Diego and San Miguel de Allende are level on 62.
Culture & sights. San Diego 50, San Miguel de Allende 62: San Miguel de Allende leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. San Diego 48, San Miguel de Allende 38: San Diego leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Diego 77, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Diego leads by 37 points.
Day trips. San Diego 60, San Miguel de Allende 77: San Miguel de Allende leads by 17 points.
Good for families. San Diego 96, San Miguel de Allende 32: San Diego leads by 64 points.
Getting around. San Diego 38, San Miguel de Allende 48: San Miguel de Allende leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. San Diego 44, San Miguel de Allende 55: San Miguel de Allende leads by 11 points.
Affordability. San Diego 26, San Miguel de Allende 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Diego 56, San Miguel de Allende 40: San Diego leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Diego 45, San Miguel de Allende 66: San Miguel de Allende leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Diego and San Miguel de Allende.

Your match

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

San Diego
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and families 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.

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °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
San DiegoSan 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. San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre). San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan DiegoSan 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-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation129 m1,900 m
Main airportSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinationsGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan DiegoSan Miguel de Allende
City population1,386,93269,811
People per km²1,438-
Museums within 10 km262
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month-

Where else could you go?

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