VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
The Iguazu Falls in the green jungle, Puerto Iguazu
Puerto IguazuThe Iguazu Falls in the green jungle

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Iguazu by Muhammed Ballan, Pexels License.

Huatulco or Puerto Iguazu?

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
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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

Choose Puerto Iguazu for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Iguazu’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, Puerto Iguazu 5: Huatulco leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Puerto Iguazu 28: Huatulco leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Puerto Iguazu 9: Huatulco leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Puerto Iguazu 14: Huatulco leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Puerto Iguazu 95: Puerto Iguazu leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Puerto Iguazu 33: Huatulco leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Puerto Iguazu 55: Huatulco leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Puerto Iguazu 54: Puerto Iguazu leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Puerto Iguazu 17: Huatulco leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Puerto Iguazu 48: Huatulco leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Puerto Iguazu 7: Huatulco leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Puerto Iguazu 34: Huatulco leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Puerto Iguazu.

Your match

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

Huatulco
Best match
43match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Puerto Iguazu
33match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Puerto Iguazu in July

22 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
103 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoPuerto Iguazu

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). Puerto Iguazu: 1991-2020 normals, Iguazu Aerodrome (17.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoPuerto Iguazu
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation220 m162 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsCataratas Del Iguazú International Airport (IGR)18 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoPuerto Iguazu
City population7,40954,903
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 Puerto Iguazu 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.