VacationSelector
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco
The yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo, Merida
MeridaThe yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo

Photos: Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License; Merida by Mariposa2723, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Los Cabos or Merida?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Merida for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Merida’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, Merida 50: Los Cabos leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Los Cabos 54, Merida 72: Merida leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Los Cabos 20, Merida 64: Merida leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Los Cabos 66, Merida 42: Los Cabos leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Cabos 78, Merida 48: Los Cabos leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Los Cabos 42, Merida 80: Merida leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Los Cabos 55, Merida 50: Los Cabos leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Los Cabos 28, Merida 45: Merida leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Los Cabos 36, Merida 50: Merida leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Los Cabos 28, Merida 75: Merida leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Cabos 12, Merida 52: Merida leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Cabos 58, Merida 40: Los Cabos leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Cabos and Merida.

Your match

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

Los Cabos
47match

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

Merida
Best match
56match

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

Merida in July

35 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
148 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Los CabosMerida

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. Merida: 1991-2020 normals, Merida / lic Manuel Crecencio (5.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos CabosMerida
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m12 m
Main airportLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsManuel Crescencio Rejón International Airport (MID)5 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos CabosMerida
City population202,694892,363
People per km²-1,010
Museums within 10 km15
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Cabos or Merida 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.