VacationSelector
The 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre, Fort Myers
Fort MyersThe 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre
Punta del Este

Photos: Fort Myers by Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Fort Myers or Punta del Este?

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 Fort Myers for

  • prices
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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. Fort Myers 77, Punta del Este 72: Fort Myers leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Fort Myers 40, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Fort Myers 32, Punta del Este 22: Fort Myers leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Fort Myers 32, Punta del Este 60: Punta del Este leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fort Myers 63, Punta del Este 55: Fort Myers leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Fort Myers 50, Punta del Este 45: Fort Myers leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Fort Myers 62, Punta del Este 55: Fort Myers leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Fort Myers 15, Punta del Este 35: Punta del Este leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Fort Myers 38, Punta del Este 42: Punta del Este leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Fort Myers 38, Punta del Este 20: Fort Myers leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fort Myers 36, Punta del Este 22: Fort Myers leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fort Myers 35, Punta del Este 32: Fort Myers leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fort Myers and Punta del Este.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Fort Myers
43match

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

Punta del Este
42match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fort Myers in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
220 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Fort MyersPunta del Este

Where the figures come from

Fort Myers 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.

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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. Fort Myers: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Myers / Page Park (4.5 km from centre). Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFort MyersPunta del Este
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m11 m
Main airportSouthwest Florida International Airport (RSW)12 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureFort MyersPunta del Este
City population86,3959,277
People per km²681455
Museums within 10 km35
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C10 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fort Myers or Punta del Este 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.