VacationSelector

Amsterdam or Cusco?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

A canal bridge in autumn, Amsterdam
Amsterdam

Photo: Hans, Pexels License

The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
Cusco

Photo: Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

Your match

Amsterdam
✓ Best match
62
match

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

Cusco
49
match

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

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

AmsterdamCusco
Beaches & swimming. Amsterdam leads by 22 points.22
Food & drink. Amsterdam leads by 2 points.2
Culture & sights. Amsterdam leads by 1 points.1
Nightlife. Amsterdam leads by 35 points.35
Nature & outdoors. Cusco leads by 39 points.39
Day trips. Amsterdam leads by 9 points.9
Good for families. Amsterdam leads by 62 points.62
Getting around. Amsterdam leads by 38 points.38
Shopping & style. Amsterdam leads by 16 points.16
Affordability. Cusco leads by 51 points.51
Live music & performing arts. Amsterdam leads by 48 points.48
Wellness & relaxation. Amsterdam leads by 9 points.9
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amsterdam and Cusco.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyAmsterdamCusco
Daytime high23 °C20 °C
Night-time low13 °C1 °C
Rainfall in the month85 mm5 mm
Sunshine7 hours a dayNo figure
Sea temperature17 °CNo sea
Daylight16 hours a day11 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Amsterdam
6
7
11
15
18
21
23
23
20
15
10
7
Cusco
20
19
20
20
21
21
20
21
21
21
22
20
Sea temperature, °C
Amsterdam
6
5
6
8
12
15
17
19
17
15
11
8
Cusco
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Amsterdam
71
63
58
42
59
71
85
84
78
81
80
84
Cusco
159
133
106
36
7
3
5
6
17
50
78
127
Daylight, hours per day
Amsterdam
8
10
12
14
16
17
16
15
13
11
9
8
Cusco
13
13
12
12
12
11
11
12
12
12
13
13
Sunshine, hours per day
Amsterdam
2
3
5
6
7
7
7
6
5
4
2
2
Cusco
No sunshine record

Where the figures come from

Amsterdam's temperatures are measured 35 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Amsterdam: 1991-2020 normals, De Bilt (35.3 km from centre). Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromAmsterdamCusco
LimaLIM
13 h 5 m
no fares
AMS · 12 km
1 h 20 m
€95-160
CUZ · 5 km
SantiagoSCL
14 h 45 m
no fares
AMS · 12 km
3 h 15 m
no fares
CUZ · 5 km
BogotaBOG
11 h 5 m
no fares
AMS · 12 km
3 h 5 m
€424-527
1 stop
CUZ · 5 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-10 to 2026-12, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureAmsterdamCusco
Official languageDutchSpanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Sol (PEN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112 or 911111 or 911
Elevation-2 m3,399 m
Main airportAmsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinationsAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmsterdamCusco
City population921,468428,450
People per km²4,208-
Museums within 10 km10111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km52
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amsterdam or Cusco somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.