VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License.

Acapulco or Los Cabos?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Los Cabos for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Cabos’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, Los Cabos 84: Los Cabos leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Los Cabos 54: Acapulco leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Los Cabos 20: Acapulco leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Los Cabos 66: Los Cabos leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Los Cabos 78: Los Cabos leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Los Cabos 42: Los Cabos leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Los Cabos 55: Los Cabos leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Los Cabos 28: Acapulco leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Los Cabos 36: Los Cabos leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Los Cabos 28: Acapulco leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Los Cabos 12: Acapulco leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Los Cabos 58: Los Cabos leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Los Cabos.

Your match

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

Acapulco
44match

Wins on prices and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Los Cabos
Best match
47match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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

Los Cabos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
19 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoLos Cabos

Where the figures come from

Los Cabos has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoLos Cabos
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation18 m11 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoLos Cabos
City population658,609202,694
People per km²350-
Museums within 10 km31
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 Los Cabos 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.