VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Los Cabos for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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. Colombo 55, Los Cabos 84: Los Cabos leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Los Cabos 54: Colombo leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Los Cabos 20: Colombo leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Los Cabos 66: Los Cabos leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Los Cabos 78: Los Cabos leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Los Cabos 42: Colombo leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Los Cabos 55: Los Cabos leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Los Cabos 28: Colombo leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Los Cabos 36: Colombo leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Los Cabos 28: Colombo leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Los Cabos 12: Colombo leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Los Cabos 58: Los Cabos leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Los Cabos.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Colombo
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Los Cabos
47match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife 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

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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboLos Cabos

Where the figures come from

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureColomboLos Cabos
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-7
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m11 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboLos Cabos
City population647,557202,694
People per km²17,361-
Museums within 10 km101
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 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). 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). 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.