Santiago or Sao Paulo?

2,615 km apart, in Chile and Brazil. 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.

• Santiago Chile · best Jan, Feb, Dec
• Sao Paulo Brazil · best Jul, Aug, Sep

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 — Santiago: cheap, about 48% of the United States; Sao Paulo: cheap, about 46% of the United States.
• Currency — Santiago: Chilean peso; Sao Paulo: Brazilian real.
• Plugs — Santiago: type C and L, 220 V; Sao Paulo: type C, 127 / 220 V.
• Driving — Santiago: on the right; Sao Paulo: on the right.
• Travel advice — Santiago: no advice against travel; Sao Paulo: avoid all but essential travel to parts.

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

2,615 km as the crow flies, about 4h 06m 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

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

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.