VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The skyline and yachts on the canals, Fort Lauderdale
Fort LauderdaleThe skyline and yachts on the canals

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Fort Lauderdale by KeanoManu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Fort Lauderdale?

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

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Fort Lauderdale for

  • day trips
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Fort Lauderdale’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, Fort Lauderdale 88: Fort Lauderdale leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Fort Lauderdale 47: Acapulco leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco and Fort Lauderdale are level on 28.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Fort Lauderdale 52: Acapulco leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Fort Lauderdale 62: Fort Lauderdale leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Fort Lauderdale 58: Fort Lauderdale leads by 43 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Fort Lauderdale 66: Fort Lauderdale leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Fort Lauderdale 32: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Fort Lauderdale 52: Fort Lauderdale leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Fort Lauderdale 32: Acapulco leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Fort Lauderdale 42: Fort Lauderdale leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Fort Lauderdale 40: Fort Lauderdale leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Fort Lauderdale.

Your match

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

Acapulco
44match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Fort Lauderdale
Best match
50match

Wins on day trips 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.

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

Fort Lauderdale in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
166 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoFort Lauderdale

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoFort Lauderdale
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation18 m11 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre138 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoFort Lauderdale
City population658,609182,760
People per km²3501,829
Museums within 10 km36
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Fort Lauderdale 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.