VacationSelector
La Paz
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

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

La Paz 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 La Paz for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose Salvador for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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. La Paz 3, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. La Paz 50, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. La Paz 52, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. La Paz 38, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Paz 82, Salvador 52: La Paz leads by 30 points.
Day trips. La Paz 40, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 16 points.
Good for families. La Paz 10, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 32 points.
Getting around. La Paz 45, Salvador 42: La Paz leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. La Paz 45, Salvador 42: La Paz leads by 3 points.
Affordability. La Paz 92, Salvador 70: La Paz leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Paz 35, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Paz 12, Salvador 32: Salvador leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Paz and Salvador.

Your match

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

La Paz
42match

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

Salvador
Best match
58match

Wins on beaches 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.

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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
La PazSalvador

Where the figures come from

La Paz 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. La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLa PazSalvador
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, GuaraniPortuguese
CurrencyBoliviano (BOB)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAC50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation3,640 m8 m
Main airportEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa PazSalvador
City population755,7322,417,678
People per km²1,6013,489
Museums within 10 km2149
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 La Paz or Salvador somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.