VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or Huatulco?

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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Huatulco for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Huatulco’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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Huatulco 86: Huatulco leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Huatulco 44: Antigua Guatemala leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Huatulco 15: Antigua Guatemala leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Huatulco 24: Antigua Guatemala leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Huatulco 76: Antigua Guatemala leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Huatulco 40: Antigua Guatemala leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Huatulco 56: Huatulco leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Huatulco 33: Antigua Guatemala leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Huatulco 20: Antigua Guatemala leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Huatulco 62: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Huatulco 9: Antigua Guatemala leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Huatulco 52: Huatulco leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Huatulco.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Huatulco
43match

Wins on beaches 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.

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Huatulco in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
156 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaHuatulco

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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.

Huatulco's temperatures are measured 42 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Huatulco's station stands 177 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Huatulco 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaHuatulco
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123911
Elevation1,582 m220 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaHuatulco
City population59,0917,409
Museums within 10 km20
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 Antigua Guatemala or Huatulco 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.