VacationSelector
A canal bridge in autumn, Amsterdam
AmsterdamA canal bridge in autumn
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco

Photos: Amsterdam by Hans, Pexels License; Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License.

Amsterdam 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 Amsterdam for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Los Cabos for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Amsterdam 25, Los Cabos 84: Los Cabos leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Amsterdam 58, Los Cabos 54: Amsterdam leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Amsterdam 82, Los Cabos 20: Amsterdam leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Amsterdam 77, Los Cabos 66: Amsterdam leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amsterdam 47, Los Cabos 78: Los Cabos leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Amsterdam 87, Los Cabos 42: Amsterdam leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Amsterdam 72, Los Cabos 55: Amsterdam leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Amsterdam 86, Los Cabos 28: Amsterdam leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Amsterdam 68, Los Cabos 36: Amsterdam leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Amsterdam 22, Los Cabos 28: Los Cabos leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amsterdam 78, Los Cabos 12: Amsterdam leads by 66 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amsterdam 42, Los Cabos 58: Los Cabos leads by 16 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Amsterdam
Best match
62match

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

Los Cabos
47match

Wins on beaches 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.

Amsterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AmsterdamLos Cabos

Where the figures come from

Amsterdam 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.

Amsterdam's sunshine is measured 35 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

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. Amsterdam: 1991-2020 normals, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (12 km from centre). Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAmsterdamLos Cabos
Official languageDutchSpanish, 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
Elevation-2 m11 m
Main airportAmsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinationsLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmsterdamLos Cabos
City population921,468202,694
People per km²4,208-
Museums within 10 km1011
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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