VacationSelector
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Los Cabos or San Sebastian?

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

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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, San Sebastian 68: Los Cabos leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Los Cabos 54, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Los Cabos 20, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Los Cabos 66, San Sebastian 44: Los Cabos leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Cabos 78, San Sebastian 72: Los Cabos leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Los Cabos 42, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Los Cabos 55, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Los Cabos 28, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Los Cabos 36, San Sebastian 40: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Los Cabos 28, San Sebastian 32: San Sebastian leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Cabos 12, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Cabos 58, San Sebastian 50: Los Cabos leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Cabos and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

Los Cabos
47match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Los CabosSan Sebastian

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.

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos CabosSan Sebastian
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 m6 m
Main airportLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos CabosSan Sebastian
City population202,694189,866
People per km²-3,118
Museums within 10 km114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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