VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Huatulco or Orange Beach?

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

  • prices
  • wellness
  • getting around

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

Choose Orange Beach for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Orange Beach’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 and Orange Beach are level on 86.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Orange Beach 40: Huatulco leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Orange Beach 7: Huatulco leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Orange Beach 30: Orange Beach leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Orange Beach 60: Huatulco leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Orange Beach 50: Orange Beach leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Orange Beach 75: Orange Beach leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Orange Beach 15: Huatulco leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Orange Beach 25: Orange Beach leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Orange Beach 38: Huatulco leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Orange Beach 32: Orange Beach leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Orange Beach 32: Huatulco leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Orange Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Huatulco
43match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on live music and the arts and families 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

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoOrange Beach

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). Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoOrange Beach
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation220 m4 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoOrange Beach
City population7,4098,095
People per km²-196
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Huatulco or Orange Beach 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.