VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
The harbour seen from above, Marmaris
MarmarisThe harbour seen from above

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Marmaris by Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cusco or Marmaris?

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

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose Marmaris for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Marmaris’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, Marmaris 80: Marmaris leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Marmaris 40: Cusco leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Marmaris 18: Cusco leads by 63 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, Marmaris 60: Marmaris leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Marmaris 72: Cusco leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Marmaris 65: Cusco leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Marmaris 62: Marmaris leads by 52 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Marmaris 55: Marmaris leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Marmaris 38: Cusco leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Marmaris 62: Cusco leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Marmaris 12: Cusco leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Marmaris 50: Marmaris leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Marmaris.

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 culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Marmaris
51match

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.

Cusco in July

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

Marmaris in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CuscoMarmaris

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.

Marmaris's temperatures are measured 49 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Marmaris 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). Marmaris: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (48.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoMarmaris
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaTurkish
CurrencySol (PEN)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+3
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation3,399 m7 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsDalaman International Airport (DLM)49 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoMarmaris
City population428,45097,818
People per km²-111
Museums within 10 km111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cusco or Marmaris 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.