VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Havana or Puerto Escondido?

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

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

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

Choose Puerto Escondido for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Escondido’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, Puerto Escondido 82: Puerto Escondido leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Puerto Escondido 48: Puerto Escondido leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Puerto Escondido 8: Havana leads by 69 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Puerto Escondido 45: Havana leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Puerto Escondido 78: Puerto Escondido leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Puerto Escondido 35: Havana leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Puerto Escondido 42: Puerto Escondido leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Puerto Escondido 40: Puerto Escondido leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Puerto Escondido 22: Havana leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Puerto Escondido 68: Puerto Escondido leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Puerto Escondido 12: Havana leads by 62 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Puerto Escondido 58: Puerto Escondido leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Puerto Escondido.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Havana
47match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Puerto Escondido
45match

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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Puerto Escondido in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaPuerto Escondido

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.

Puerto Escondido's temperatures are measured 66 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Puerto Escondido 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). Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaPuerto Escondido
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 m60 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaPuerto Escondido
City population2,492,61829,903
People per km²3,423-
Museums within 10 km120
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 Puerto Escondido 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.