VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Huatulco or Quito?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Quito for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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, Quito 5: Huatulco leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Quito 54: Quito leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Quito 77: Quito leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Quito 40: Quito leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Quito 86: Quito leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Quito 55: Quito leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Quito 32: Huatulco leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Quito 45: Quito leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Quito 40: Quito leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Quito 78: Quito leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Quito 38: Quito leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Quito 44: Huatulco leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Quito.

Your match

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

Huatulco
43match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Quito
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoQuito

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.

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoQuito
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation220 m2,850 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoQuito
City population7,4091,763,275
People per km²-4,735
Museums within 10 km016
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Quito 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.