VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License.

Havana 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 Havana for

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

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

Choose Los Cabos for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • families

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. Havana 64, Los Cabos 84: Los Cabos leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Los Cabos 54: Los Cabos leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Los Cabos 20: Havana leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Los Cabos 66: Los Cabos leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Los Cabos 78: Los Cabos leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Los Cabos 42: Los Cabos leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Los Cabos 55: Los Cabos leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Los Cabos 28: Havana leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Los Cabos 36: Los Cabos leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Los Cabos 28: Havana leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Los Cabos 12: Havana leads by 62 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Los Cabos 58: Los Cabos leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Los Cabos.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Havana
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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.

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaLos Cabos

Where the figures come from

Havana 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. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHavanaLos Cabos
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105911
Elevation59 m11 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaLos Cabos
City population2,492,618202,694
People per km²3,423-
Museums within 10 km121
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Havana 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). 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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.