VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Arequipa?

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 Acapulco for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Acapulco’s own page.

Choose Arequipa for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Arequipa’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. Acapulco 80, Arequipa 8: Acapulco leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Arequipa 66: Arequipa leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Arequipa 64: Arequipa leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Arequipa 36: Acapulco leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Arequipa 74: Arequipa leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Arequipa 30: Arequipa leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Arequipa 35: Acapulco leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Arequipa 54: Arequipa leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Arequipa 44: Arequipa leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Arequipa 82: Arequipa leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Arequipa 27: Arequipa leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Arequipa 34: Arequipa leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Arequipa.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Acapulco
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Arequipa
46match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoArequipa

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoArequipa
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Sol (PEN)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911111 or 911
Elevation18 m2,335 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoArequipa
City population658,6091,008,290
People per km²3501,551
Museums within 10 km33
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Arequipa 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.