VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Cusco?

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
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Cusco for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Cusco’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, Cusco 3: Acapulco leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Cusco 56: Cusco leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Cusco 81: Cusco leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Cusco 42: Acapulco leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Cusco 86: Cusco leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Cusco 78: Cusco leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Cusco 10: Acapulco leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Cusco 48: Cusco leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Cusco 52: Cusco leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Cusco 73: Acapulco leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Cusco 30: Cusco leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Cusco 33: Cusco leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Cusco.

Your match

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

Acapulco
44match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Cusco
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 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
AcapulcoCusco

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler 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). Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoCusco
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 m3,399 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoCusco
City population658,609428,450
People per km²350-
Museums within 10 km311
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Cusco 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.