VacationSelector
The Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla, AlUla
AlUlaThe Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco

Photos: AlUla by Richard.hargas, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License.

AlUla 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 AlUla for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Los Cabos for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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. AlUla 3, Los Cabos 84: Los Cabos leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. AlUla 28, Los Cabos 54: Los Cabos leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. AlUla 70, Los Cabos 20: AlUla leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. AlUla 5, Los Cabos 66: Los Cabos leads by 61 points.
Nature & outdoors. AlUla 72, Los Cabos 78: Los Cabos leads by 6 points.
Day trips. AlUla 20, Los Cabos 42: Los Cabos leads by 22 points.
Good for families. AlUla 35, Los Cabos 55: Los Cabos leads by 20 points.
Getting around. AlUla 15, Los Cabos 28: Los Cabos leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. AlUla 15, Los Cabos 36: Los Cabos leads by 21 points.
Affordability. AlUla 18, Los Cabos 28: Los Cabos leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. AlUla 28, Los Cabos 12: AlUla leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. AlUla 45, Los Cabos 58: Los Cabos leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: AlUla and Los Cabos.

Your match

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

AlUla
30match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Los Cabos
Best match
47match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

AlUla in July

43 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Los Cabos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
19 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AlUlaLos Cabos

Where the figures come from

AlUla 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.

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. AlUla: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Alula / Al ‘Ulá (23.7 km from centre). Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAlUlaLos Cabos
Official languageArabicSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencySaudi Riyal (SAR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-7
Emergency number112 or 911911
Elevation692 m11 m
Main airportAl-Ula International Airport (ULH)24 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlUlaLos Cabos
City population32,413202,694
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow AlUla 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.