VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Huatulco or Siem Reap?

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
  • families

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

Choose Siem Reap for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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, Siem Reap 5: Huatulco leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Siem Reap 45: Siem Reap leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 73 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Siem Reap 42: Siem Reap leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Siem Reap 40: Huatulco leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Siem Reap 55: Siem Reap leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Siem Reap 35: Huatulco leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Siem Reap 30: Huatulco leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Siem Reap 38: Siem Reap leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Siem Reap 32: Siem Reap leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco and Siem Reap.

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.

Siem Reap
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoSiem Reap

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.

Siem Reap has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoSiem Reap
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaKhmer
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation220 m18 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoSiem Reap
City population7,409147,866
Museums within 10 km06
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 Siem Reap 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.