VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Huatulco or Sao Paulo?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Huatulco leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Sao Paulo 60: Sao Paulo leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 62 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Sao Paulo 48: Huatulco leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Sao Paulo 47: Sao Paulo leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Sao Paulo 52: Huatulco leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Sao Paulo 44: Sao Paulo leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Huatulco and Sao Paulo are level on 62.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 67 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Sao Paulo 25: Huatulco leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Huatulco
43match

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

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoSao Paulo

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). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoSao Paulo
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 m760 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoSao Paulo
City population7,40911,451,999
People per km²-7,519
Museums within 10 km090
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 Sao Paulo 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.