VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
La Paz

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License.

Baku or La Paz?

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 Baku for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose La Paz for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on La Paz’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. Baku 40, La Paz 3: Baku leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, La Paz 50: Baku leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, La Paz 52: Baku leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, La Paz 38: Baku leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, La Paz 82: La Paz leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, La Paz 40: Baku leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, La Paz 10: Baku leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, La Paz 45: Baku leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, La Paz 45: Baku leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, La Paz 92: La Paz leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, La Paz 35: Baku leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku 30, La Paz 12: Baku leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku and La Paz.

Your match

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

Baku
Best match
48match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

La Paz
42match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BakuLa Paz

Where the figures come from

La Paz 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. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBakuLa Paz
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Boliviano (BOB)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAC50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-4
Emergency number102 or 112911
Elevation-28 m3,640 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuLa Paz
City population2,300,500755,732
People per km²1,0751,601
Museums within 10 km5021
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku or La Paz 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. 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 figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.