VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Lima?

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
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Lima for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’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, Lima 42: Acapulco leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Lima 88: Lima leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Lima 66: Lima leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Lima 62: Acapulco leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Lima 45: Acapulco leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Lima 34: Lima leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Lima 42: Acapulco leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Lima 35: Lima leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Lima 52: Lima leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Lima 70: Acapulco leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Lima 53: Lima leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Lima 25: Acapulco leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Lima.

Your match

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

Acapulco
44match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink 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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoLima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoLima
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 m154 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoLima
City population658,6099,943,800
People per km²3503,721
Museums within 10 km347
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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