VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Huatulco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • families

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. Colombo 55, Huatulco 86: Huatulco leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Huatulco 44: Colombo leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Huatulco 15: Colombo leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Huatulco 24: Colombo leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Huatulco 76: Huatulco leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Huatulco 40: Colombo leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Huatulco 56: Huatulco leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Huatulco 33: Colombo leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Huatulco 20: Colombo leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Huatulco 62: Colombo leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Huatulco 9: Colombo leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Huatulco 52: Huatulco leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Huatulco.

Your match

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

Colombo
Best match
46match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Huatulco
43match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboHuatulco

Where the figures come from

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboHuatulco
Official languageTamil, SinhalaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m220 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboHuatulco
City population647,5577,409
People per km²17,361-
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo 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. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.