VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Huatulco or Salvador?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Salvador for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Huatulco leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 46 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Salvador 52: Huatulco leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Salvador 42: Huatulco leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 54 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Salvador 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 Salvador.

Your match

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

Huatulco
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

Salvador
Best match
58match

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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoSalvador

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). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoSalvador
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPortuguese
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation220 m8 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoSalvador
City population7,4092,417,678
People per km²-3,489
Museums within 10 km049
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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