VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License.

Alicante 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 Alicante for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Los Cabos for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Alicante 82, Los Cabos 84: Los Cabos leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Los Cabos 54: Alicante leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Los Cabos 20: Alicante leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Los Cabos 66: Los Cabos leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Los Cabos 78: Los Cabos leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Los Cabos 42: Alicante leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Los Cabos 55: Alicante leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Los Cabos 28: Alicante leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Los Cabos 36: Alicante leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Los Cabos 28: Alicante leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Los Cabos 12: Alicante leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Los Cabos 58: Los Cabos leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Los Cabos.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

Los Cabos
47match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteLos 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. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteLos Cabos
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number112911
Elevation3 m11 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteLos Cabos
City population366,221202,694
People per km²1,819-
Museums within 10 km81
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.