VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
Palm Springs

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cusco or Palm Springs?

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

  • prices
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • wellness
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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, Palm Springs 7: Palm Springs leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Palm Springs 40: Cusco leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Palm Springs 42: Cusco leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, Palm Springs 36: Cusco leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Palm Springs 78: Cusco leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Palm Springs 38: Cusco leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Palm Springs 22: Cusco leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Palm Springs 44: Cusco leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Palm Springs 32: Cusco leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Cusco
Best match
49match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness 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
11 hdaylight a day

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CuscoPalm Springs

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.

Palm Springs 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). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoPalm Springs
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua-
CurrencySol (PEN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation3,399 m146 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoPalm Springs
City population428,45044,575
People per km²-181
Museums within 10 km113
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cusco or Palm Springs 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.