VacationSelector
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Destin or Lima?

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 Destin for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Lima for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’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. Destin 86, Lima 42: Destin leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Destin 42, Lima 88: Lima leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Destin 14, Lima 66: Lima leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Destin 36, Lima 62: Lima leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Destin 56, Lima 45: Destin leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Destin 44, Lima 34: Destin leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Destin 72, Lima 42: Destin leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Destin 20, Lima 35: Lima leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Destin 40, Lima 52: Lima leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Destin 34, Lima 70: Lima leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Destin 20, Lima 53: Lima leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Destin 33, Lima 25: Destin leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Destin and Lima.

Your match

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

Destin
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Destin in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DestinLima

Where the figures come from

Destin 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. Destin: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Destin (0.8 km from centre). Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDestinLima
Official language-Spanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Sol (PEN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911111 or 911
Elevation8 m154 m
Main airportDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureDestinLima
City population13,9319,943,800
People per km²6363,721
Museums within 10 km147
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Destin or Lima 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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.