VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Huatulco or Shanghai?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Shanghai for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Huatulco leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Shanghai 25: Huatulco leads by 51 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 62 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Shanghai 55: Huatulco leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 57 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Shanghai.

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.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoShanghai
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPutonghua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation220 m4 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoShanghai
City population7,40924,870,895
People per km²-3,922
Museums within 10 km045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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