VacationSelector
White sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Shores
Gulf ShoresWhite sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco

Photos: Gulf Shores by ourgulfshoresvacation.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License.

Gulf Shores 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 Gulf Shores for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Los Cabos for

  • nightlife
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Gulf Shores and Los Cabos are level on 84.
Food & drink. Gulf Shores 38, Los Cabos 54: Los Cabos leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Gulf Shores 12, Los Cabos 20: Los Cabos leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Gulf Shores 32, Los Cabos 66: Los Cabos leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gulf Shores 52, Los Cabos 78: Los Cabos leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Gulf Shores 52, Los Cabos 42: Gulf Shores leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Gulf Shores 75, Los Cabos 55: Gulf Shores leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Gulf Shores 15, Los Cabos 28: Los Cabos leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Gulf Shores 22, Los Cabos 36: Los Cabos leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Gulf Shores 42, Los Cabos 28: Gulf Shores leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gulf Shores 27, Los Cabos 12: Gulf Shores leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gulf Shores 28, Los Cabos 58: Los Cabos leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gulf Shores and Los Cabos.

Your match

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

Gulf Shores
40match

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

Los Cabos
Best match
47match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Gulf Shores in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
165 mmrain in the month
29 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Gulf ShoresLos Cabos

Where the figures come from

Gulf Shores 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.

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. Gulf Shores: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (3.7 km from centre). Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureGulf ShoresLos Cabos
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation2 m11 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)54 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureGulf ShoresLos Cabos
City population15,014202,694
People per km²207-
Museums within 10 km11
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Gulf Shores 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). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.