VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
Palm Canyon Drive, lined with tall palms, Palm Springs
Palm SpringsPalm Canyon Drive, lined with tall palms

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Palm Springs by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Huatulco or Palm Springs?

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
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Palm Springs for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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, Palm Springs 7: Huatulco leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Palm Springs 40: Huatulco leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Palm Springs 42: Palm Springs leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Palm Springs 36: Palm Springs leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Palm Springs 38: Huatulco leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Palm Springs 40: Huatulco leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Palm Springs 22: Huatulco leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Palm Springs 44: Palm Springs leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Palm Springs 32: Huatulco leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Huatulco
43match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

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

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoPalm Springs

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.

Palm Springs 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). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoPalm Springs
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation220 m146 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoPalm Springs
City population7,40944,575
People per km²-181
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Palm Springs 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.