VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Luang Prabang or Puerto Escondido?

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 Luang Prabang for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Luang Prabang’s own page.

Choose Puerto Escondido for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Escondido’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. Luang Prabang 14, Puerto Escondido 82: Puerto Escondido leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Puerto Escondido 48: Puerto Escondido leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Puerto Escondido 8: Luang Prabang leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Puerto Escondido 45: Puerto Escondido leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Puerto Escondido 78: Puerto Escondido leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang and Puerto Escondido are level on 35.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Puerto Escondido 42: Puerto Escondido leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Puerto Escondido 40: Luang Prabang leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Puerto Escondido 22: Luang Prabang leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Puerto Escondido 68: Luang Prabang leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Puerto Escondido 12: Luang Prabang leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Puerto Escondido 58: Luang Prabang leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Puerto Escondido.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Puerto Escondido
45match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Puerto Escondido in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Luang PrabangPuerto Escondido

Where the figures come from

Puerto Escondido's temperatures are measured 66 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Puerto Escondido has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangPuerto Escondido
Official languageLaoSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190911
Elevation305 m60 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangPuerto Escondido
City population53,79229,903
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Luang Prabang or Puerto Escondido somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.