VacationSelector
A boat in the swell beside El Arco, Los Cabos
Los CabosA boat in the swell beside El Arco
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Los Cabos by Jules Clark, Pexels License; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Los Cabos or Wilmington?

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
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Wilmington for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Los Cabos leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Los Cabos 54, Wilmington 48: Los Cabos leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Los Cabos 20, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Los Cabos 66, Wilmington 40: Los Cabos leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Cabos 78, Wilmington 58: Los Cabos leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Los Cabos 42, Wilmington 45: Wilmington leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Los Cabos 55, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Los Cabos and Wilmington are level on 28.
Shopping & style. Los Cabos 36, Wilmington 33: Los Cabos leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Los Cabos 28, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Cabos 12, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Cabos 58, Wilmington 33: Los Cabos leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Cabos and Wilmington.

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 nightlife and wellness with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Los CabosWilmington

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. Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos CabosWilmington
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m9 m
Main airportLos Cabos International Airport (SJD)35 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos CabosWilmington
City population202,694115,451
People per km²-839
Museums within 10 km12
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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