VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Huatulco or Portofino?

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
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Portofino for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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, Portofino 60: Huatulco leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Portofino 36: Huatulco leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Portofino 22: Portofino leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Portofino 14: Huatulco leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Portofino 33: Huatulco leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Portofino 29: Portofino leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Portofino 9: Huatulco leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Portofino 7: Huatulco leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Portofino 42: Huatulco leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Portofino.

Your match

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

Huatulco
Best match
43match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoPortofino

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.

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoPortofino
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaItalian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation220 m20 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoPortofino
City population7,409355
People per km²-142
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Huatulco or Portofino 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.