VacationSelector
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Destin or Quito?

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

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

Choose Quito for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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, Quito 5: Destin leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Destin 42, Quito 54: Quito leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Destin 14, Quito 77: Quito leads by 63 points.
Nightlife. Destin 36, Quito 40: Quito leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Destin 56, Quito 86: Quito leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Destin 44, Quito 55: Quito leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Destin 72, Quito 32: Destin leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Destin 20, Quito 45: Quito leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Destin and Quito are level on 40.
Affordability. Destin 34, Quito 78: Quito leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Destin 20, Quito 38: Quito leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Destin 33, Quito 44: Quito leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Destin and Quito.

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.

Quito
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DestinQuito

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.

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Destin: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Destin (0.8 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDestinQuito
Official language-Spanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m2,850 m
Main airportDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDestinQuito
City population13,9311,763,275
People per km²6364,735
Museums within 10 km116
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months-

Where else could you go?

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