VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Huatulco or Luang Prabang?

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
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Luang Prabang for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Luang Prabang’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, Luang Prabang 14: Huatulco leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Luang Prabang 42: Huatulco leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Luang Prabang 65: Luang Prabang leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Luang Prabang 8: Huatulco leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Luang Prabang 68: Huatulco leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Luang Prabang 35: Huatulco leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Luang Prabang 38: Huatulco leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Luang Prabang 50: Luang Prabang leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Luang Prabang 38: Luang Prabang leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Luang Prabang 80: Luang Prabang leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Luang Prabang 18: Luang Prabang leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Luang Prabang 60: Luang Prabang leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Luang Prabang.

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

Huatulco
43match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Luang Prabang
43match

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

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoLuang Prabang

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). Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoLuang Prabang
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaLao
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Lao Kip (LAK)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzABCEF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 195, fire 190
Elevation220 m305 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoLuang Prabang
City population7,40953,792
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Huatulco or Luang Prabang 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. 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.