VacationSelector
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple

Photos: Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License; Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Los Cabos or Luang Prabang?

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 Cabos for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Luang Prabang for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Luang Prabang’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 Cabos 84, Luang Prabang 14: Los Cabos leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Los Cabos 54, Luang Prabang 42: Los Cabos leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Los Cabos 20, Luang Prabang 65: Luang Prabang leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Los Cabos 66, Luang Prabang 8: Los Cabos leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Cabos 78, Luang Prabang 68: Los Cabos leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Los Cabos 42, Luang Prabang 35: Los Cabos leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Los Cabos 55, Luang Prabang 38: Los Cabos leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Los Cabos 28, Luang Prabang 50: Luang Prabang leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Los Cabos 36, Luang Prabang 38: Luang Prabang leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Los Cabos 28, Luang Prabang 80: Luang Prabang leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Cabos 12, Luang Prabang 18: Luang Prabang leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Cabos 58, Luang Prabang 60: Luang Prabang leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Cabos and Luang Prabang.

Your match

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

Los Cabos
Best match
47match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on prices 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.

Los Cabos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
19 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Los CabosLuang Prabang

Where the figures come from

Los Cabos 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. Los Cabos: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos CabosLuang Prabang
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaLao
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Lao Kip (LAK)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzABCEF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 195, fire 190
Elevation11 m305 m
Main airportLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLos CabosLuang Prabang
City population202,69453,792
Museums within 10 km10
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 Los Cabos or Luang Prabang 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. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.