VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Cusco or Havana?

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 Cusco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Havana for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Havana’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. Cusco 3, Havana 64: Havana leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Havana 40: Cusco leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Havana 77: Cusco leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, Havana 60: Havana leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Havana 34: Cusco leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Havana 38: Cusco leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Havana 34: Havana leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Havana 38: Cusco leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Havana 30: Cusco leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Havana 58: Cusco leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Havana 74: Havana leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Havana 22: Cusco leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Havana.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cusco
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Havana
47match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CuscoHavana

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Havana 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. Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoHavana
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaSpanish
CurrencySol (PEN)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation3,399 m59 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoHavana
City population428,4502,492,618
People per km²-3,423
Museums within 10 km1112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Cusco or Havana 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.