VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License.

Acapulco or Huntington Beach?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Huntington Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Huntington Beach’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, Huntington Beach 70: Acapulco leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Huntington Beach 46: Acapulco leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Huntington Beach 14: Acapulco leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Huntington Beach 38: Acapulco leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Huntington Beach 58: Huntington Beach leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Huntington Beach 63: Huntington Beach leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Huntington Beach 82: Huntington Beach leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Huntington Beach 20: Acapulco leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Huntington Beach 42: Huntington Beach leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Huntington Beach 28: Acapulco leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Huntington Beach 33: Huntington Beach leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Huntington Beach 36: Huntington Beach leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Huntington Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Acapulco
44match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Huntington Beach
44match

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

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoHuntington Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoHuntington Beach
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation18 m12 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoHuntington Beach
City population658,609198,711
People per km²3502,406
Museums within 10 km33
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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