VacationSelector
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco

Photos: Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License; Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License.

Dubai or Los Cabos?

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 Dubai for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Los Cabos for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Cabos’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. Dubai 80, Los Cabos 84: Los Cabos leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Dubai 76, Los Cabos 54: Dubai leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Dubai 40, Los Cabos 20: Dubai leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Dubai 62, Los Cabos 66: Los Cabos leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dubai 25, Los Cabos 78: Los Cabos leads by 53 points.
Day trips. Dubai 45, Los Cabos 42: Dubai leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Dubai 82, Los Cabos 55: Dubai leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Dubai 42, Los Cabos 28: Dubai leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Dubai 82, Los Cabos 36: Dubai leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Dubai 32, Los Cabos 28: Dubai leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dubai 40, Los Cabos 12: Dubai leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dubai 46, Los Cabos 58: Los Cabos leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dubai and Los Cabos.

Your match

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

Dubai
Best match
54match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Los Cabos
47match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Dubai in July

42 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Los Cabos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
19 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
DubaiLos Cabos

Where the figures come from

Los Cabos has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre). Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDubaiLos Cabos
Official languageArabicSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-7
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m11 m
Main airportDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinationsLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureDubaiLos Cabos
City population3,944,751202,694
Museums within 10 km141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubai or Los Cabos 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). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.