Buenos Aires or Santiago?

1,138 km apart, in Argentina and Chile. Each is scored month by month on the same ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. This is where they part, and when.

• Buenos Aires Argentina · best Sep, Oct, Dec
• Santiago Chile · best Jan, Feb, Dec

Month by month

Each cell is that destination's own verdict for the month — sweet spot, ok or avoid — with its typical daily high and its rainy days ("11d"). The pick goes to the better verdict; with the same verdict, to the higher score, unless the two are within a whisker of each other, when it is either. A month both would avoid is neither. A dot marks a busy month.

Before you go

• Cost of living — Buenos Aires: cheap, about 46% of the United States; Santiago: cheap, about 48% of the United States.
• Currency — Buenos Aires: Argentine convertible peso; Santiago: Chilean peso.
• Plugs — Buenos Aires: type C and I, 220 V; Santiago: type C and L, 220 V.
• Driving — Buenos Aires: on the right; Santiago: on the right.
• Travel advice — Buenos Aires: no advice against travel; Santiago: no advice against travel.

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

Between them

1,138 km as the crow flies, about 2h 18m in the air.

The flight time is estimated from the distance. A road, train or bus is named only where it was measured — flights from AeroDataBox, roads from OpenRouteService, timetables via Transitous — and none of it is a fare; the searches on each destination's page are where prices live.

Also compared

• Buenos Aires or Bogota
• Buenos Aires or Lima
• Buenos Aires or Sao Paulo
• Santiago or Bogota
• Santiago or Lima
• Santiago or Sao Paulo

Every verdict here is the destination's own: ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. The comparison is the difference between two pages, not a third opinion.