VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Havana or Oaxaca?

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

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Oaxaca for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Oaxaca’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, Oaxaca 5: Havana leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Oaxaca 84: Oaxaca leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Oaxaca 74: Havana leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Oaxaca 40: Havana leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Oaxaca 62: Oaxaca leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Oaxaca 65: Oaxaca leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Oaxaca 40: Oaxaca leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Oaxaca 55: Oaxaca leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Oaxaca 62: Oaxaca leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Oaxaca 77: Oaxaca leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Oaxaca 38: Havana leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Oaxaca 50: Oaxaca leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Oaxaca.

Your match

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

Havana
47match

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

Oaxaca
Best match
54match

Wins on food and drink and shopping 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaOaxaca

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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaOaxaca
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-6
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105911
Elevation59 m1,555 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaOaxaca
City population2,492,618258,913
People per km²3,4233,028
Museums within 10 km1210
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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