VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Huatulco or Istanbul?

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 Huatulco for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Istanbul for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Istanbul’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. Huatulco 86, Istanbul 45: Huatulco leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Istanbul 87: Istanbul leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Istanbul 90: Istanbul leads by 75 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Istanbul 77: Istanbul leads by 53 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Istanbul 52: Huatulco leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Istanbul 55: Istanbul leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Istanbul 55: Huatulco leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Istanbul 62: Istanbul leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Istanbul 86: Istanbul leads by 66 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Istanbul 60: Huatulco leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Istanbul 62: Istanbul leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Istanbul 75: Istanbul leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Istanbul.

Your match

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

Huatulco
43match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Huatulco in July

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

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoIstanbul

Where the figures come from

Huatulco's temperatures are measured 42 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Huatulco's station stands 177 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Huatulco 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. Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre). Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoIstanbul
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaTurkish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+3
Emergency number911112
Elevation220 m100 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoIstanbul
City population7,40915,655,924
People per km²-2,930
Museums within 10 km073
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Huatulco or Istanbul 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under 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.