VacationSelector
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco
White sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach, Pensacola
PensacolaWhite sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach

Photos: Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License; Pensacola by Jason Meredith, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Los Cabos or Pensacola?

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

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Pensacola for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Pensacola’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 and Pensacola are level on 84.
Food & drink. Los Cabos 54, Pensacola 45: Los Cabos leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Los Cabos 20, Pensacola 45: Pensacola leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Los Cabos 66, Pensacola 42: Los Cabos leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Cabos 78, Pensacola 62: Los Cabos leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Los Cabos 42, Pensacola 45: Pensacola leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Los Cabos 55, Pensacola 62: Pensacola leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Los Cabos 28, Pensacola 18: Los Cabos leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Los Cabos 36, Pensacola 28: Los Cabos leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Los Cabos 28, Pensacola 44: Pensacola leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Cabos 12, Pensacola 36: Pensacola leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Cabos 58, Pensacola 30: Los Cabos leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Cabos and Pensacola.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Los Cabos
47match

Wins on wellness and nightlife with your weighting.

Pensacola
45match

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
26 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Pensacola in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Los CabosPensacola

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. Pensacola: 1991-2020 normals, Pensacola / Pleasant Grove (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos CabosPensacola
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m31 m
Main airportLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)6 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos CabosPensacola
City population202,69454,312
People per km²-515
Museums within 10 km15
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Cabos or Pensacola 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.