VacationSelector
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo

Photos: Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Kathmandu or Puerto Escondido?

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 Kathmandu for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • prices

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

Choose Puerto Escondido for

  • beaches
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Escondido’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. Kathmandu 4, Puerto Escondido 82: Puerto Escondido leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Kathmandu 55, Puerto Escondido 48: Kathmandu leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu 82, Puerto Escondido 8: Kathmandu leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Kathmandu 36, Puerto Escondido 45: Puerto Escondido leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu 70, Puerto Escondido 78: Puerto Escondido leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Kathmandu 56, Puerto Escondido 35: Kathmandu leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Kathmandu 20, Puerto Escondido 42: Puerto Escondido leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Kathmandu 25, Puerto Escondido 40: Puerto Escondido leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Kathmandu 55, Puerto Escondido 22: Kathmandu leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Kathmandu 97, Puerto Escondido 68: Kathmandu leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kathmandu 28, Puerto Escondido 12: Kathmandu leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu 45, Puerto Escondido 58: Puerto Escondido leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and Puerto Escondido.

Your match

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

Kathmandu
Best match
48match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Puerto Escondido
45match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Puerto Escondido in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KathmanduPuerto Escondido

Where the figures come from

Puerto Escondido's temperatures are measured 66 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Puerto Escondido 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. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduPuerto Escondido
Official languageNepaliSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101911
Elevation1,300 m60 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduPuerto Escondido
City population845,76729,903
People per km²17,121-
Museums within 10 km90
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu or Puerto Escondido 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.