VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
Elizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth, Perth
PerthElizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Perth by Samuel Wiki, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Cusco or Perth?

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
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Perth for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Perth’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, Perth 86: Perth leads by 83 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Perth 58: Perth leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Perth 42: Cusco leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Cusco and Perth are level on 42.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Perth 72: Cusco leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Perth 48: Cusco leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Perth 74: Perth leads by 64 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Perth 55: Perth leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Perth 44: Cusco leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Perth 28: Cusco leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Perth 50: Perth leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Perth 38: Perth leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Perth.

Your match

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

Cusco
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Perth
Best match
53match

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 recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Perth in July

19 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CuscoPerth

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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre). Perth: 1991-2020 normals, Perth (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoPerth
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish
CurrencySol (PEN)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number111 or 911000
Elevation3,399 m2 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsPerth International Airport (PER)10 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoPerth
City population428,4502,141,834
People per km²-334
Museums within 10 km1115
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cusco or Perth 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. 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.