VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The lighthouse and the peninsula in evening light, Punta del Este
Punta del EsteThe lighthouse and the peninsula in evening light

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Punta del Este by Marcelo Campi, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Punta del Este?

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
  • food and drink
  • beaches

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • day trips
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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, Punta del Este 72: Acapulco leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Punta del Este 45: Acapulco leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Punta del Este 22: Acapulco leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Punta del Este 60: Acapulco leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Punta del Este 55: Punta del Este leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Punta del Este 55: Punta del Este leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Punta del Este 35: Punta del Este leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Punta del Este 42: Punta del Este leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Punta del Este 20: Acapulco leads by 54 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Punta del Este 22: Acapulco leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco and Punta del Este are level on 32.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Punta del Este.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Acapulco
44match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Punta del Este
42match

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

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoPunta del Este

Where the figures come from

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoPunta del Este
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-3
Emergency number911911
Elevation18 m11 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoPunta del Este
City population658,6099,277
People per km²350455
Museums within 10 km35
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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