VacationSelector
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
The British Columbia Parliament Buildings, Victoria
VictoriaThe British Columbia Parliament Buildings

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

San Miguel de Allende or Victoria?

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

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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

Choose Victoria for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria’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, Victoria 28: Victoria leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. San Miguel de Allende 62, Victoria 50: San Miguel de Allende leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. San Miguel de Allende 62, Victoria 42: San Miguel de Allende leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. San Miguel de Allende 38, Victoria 30: San Miguel de Allende leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Miguel de Allende 40, Victoria 77: Victoria leads by 37 points.
Day trips. San Miguel de Allende 77, Victoria 54: San Miguel de Allende leads by 23 points.
Good for families. San Miguel de Allende 32, Victoria 62: Victoria leads by 30 points.
Getting around. San Miguel de Allende 48, Victoria 60: Victoria leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. San Miguel de Allende 55, Victoria 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 15 points.
Affordability. San Miguel de Allende 50, Victoria 34: San Miguel de Allende leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Miguel de Allende and Victoria are level on 40.
Wellness & relaxation. San Miguel de Allende 66, Victoria 48: San Miguel de Allende leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Miguel de Allende and Victoria.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Victoria
47match

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
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Victoria in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
San Miguel de AllendeVictoria

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.

Victoria's sunshine is measured 87 km from the centre, at Vancouver International Airport.

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). Victoria: 1991-2020 normals, Victoria Gonzales CS (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeVictoria
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,900 m23 m
Main airportGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsVictoria International Airport (YYJ)25 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeVictoria
City population69,81191,867
People per km²-4,711
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Miguel de Allende or Victoria 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.