VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Los Angeles or Oaxaca?

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 Los Angeles for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Oaxaca for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Oaxaca’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. Los Angeles 60, Oaxaca 5: Los Angeles leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles and Oaxaca are level on 84.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Oaxaca 74: Oaxaca leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Oaxaca 40: Los Angeles leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Oaxaca 62: Los Angeles leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Oaxaca 65: Oaxaca leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Oaxaca 40: Los Angeles leads by 44 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Oaxaca 55: Oaxaca leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Oaxaca 62: Los Angeles leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Oaxaca 77: Oaxaca leads by 53 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Oaxaca 38: Los Angeles leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Oaxaca 50: Los Angeles leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Oaxaca.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Oaxaca
54match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesOaxaca

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesOaxaca
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation106 m1,555 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesOaxaca
City population3,898,747258,913
People per km²2,9943,028
Museums within 10 km3910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Angeles or Oaxaca 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.