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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
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Miguel de Allende or Scottsdale?

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 Miguel de Allende for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’s own page.

Choose Scottsdale for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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 Miguel de Allende 4, Scottsdale 8: Scottsdale leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. San Miguel de Allende 62, Scottsdale 46: San Miguel de Allende leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. San Miguel de Allende 62, Scottsdale 38: San Miguel de Allende leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. San Miguel de Allende 38, Scottsdale 52: Scottsdale leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Miguel de Allende 40, Scottsdale 68: Scottsdale leads by 28 points.
Day trips. San Miguel de Allende 77, Scottsdale 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 27 points.
Good for families. San Miguel de Allende 32, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 28 points.
Getting around. San Miguel de Allende 48, Scottsdale 20: San Miguel de Allende leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. San Miguel de Allende 55, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 5 points.
Affordability. San Miguel de Allende 50, Scottsdale 32: San Miguel de Allende leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Miguel de Allende and Scottsdale are level on 40.
Wellness & relaxation. San Miguel de Allende 66, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Miguel de Allende and Scottsdale.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Scottsdale
46match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
San Miguel de AllendeScottsdale

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 Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeScottsdale
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,900 m380 m
Main airportGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeScottsdale
City population69,811241,361
Museums within 10 km210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Miguel de Allende or Scottsdale 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.