VacationSelector
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Los Cabos or Madrid?

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
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Madrid for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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, Madrid 5: Los Cabos leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Los Cabos 54, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Los Cabos 20, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 66 points.
Nightlife. Los Cabos 66, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Cabos 78, Madrid 60: Los Cabos leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Los Cabos 42, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Los Cabos 55, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Los Cabos 28, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Los Cabos 36, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Los Cabos 28, Madrid 50: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Cabos 12, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 65 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Cabos 58, Madrid 36: Los Cabos leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Cabos and Madrid.

Your match

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

Los Cabos
47match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Los CabosMadrid

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. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos CabosMadrid
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation11 m663 m
Main airportLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos CabosMadrid
City population202,6943,506,730
People per km²-5,801
Museums within 10 km188
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
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 Madrid 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.