Mexico City or Washington DC?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money and year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and beaches & swimming with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Washington DC leads by 18 points.18
| Mexico City | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 18 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 3 |
| Beaches 10 km | 4 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 247 km | 34 km |
| Water distance | — | 34 km |
Places to eat. Washington DC leads by 11 points.11
| Mexico City | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 77 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,179 | 1,666 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 15 | 36 |
Museums & heritage. Mexico City leads by 24 points.24
| Mexico City | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 79 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 138 | 83 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 65 | 55 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 47 | 66 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 6 | 0 |
Nightlife. Mexico City leads by 17 points.17
| Mexico City | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 61 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 2,156 | 1,029 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 926 | 593 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 43 | 58 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 198 | 54 |
Nature & day trips. Mexico City leads by 21 points.21
| Mexico City | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 42 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 30 | 10 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 1 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 94 |
| Park area within 2 km | 32 hectares | 96 hectares |
Good for families. Mexico City leads by 12 points.12
| Mexico City | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 23 | 7 |
| Park area within 2 km | 32 hectares | 96 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 4 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Washington DC leads by 22 points.22
| Mexico City | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 76 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 88 | 305 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Mexico City leads by 33 points.33
| Mexico City | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 43 |
| Price level global | 54.2 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Mexico City leads by 28 points.28
| Mexico City | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 62 |
| Monthly daytime high | 22.2 °C to 27.9 °C | 7 °C to 31.7 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 3 mm to 186 mm | 65 mm to 108 mm |
| Dry months | 6 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Mexico City: 1991-2020 normals, Mexico Central, D. F. (7.9 km from centre). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Mexico City | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 4 h 40 m €335-379 MEX · 7 km | 1 h 5 m €233-271 DCA · 5 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 3 h 35 m €248-282 1 stop MEX · 7 km | 5 h 0 m €226-372 1 stop DCA · 5 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 3 h 50 m €259-271 MEX · 7 km | 1 h 50 m €199-215 DCA · 5 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 2 h 25 m €203-306 1 stop MEX · 7 km | 2 h 55 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 4 h 30 m €367-420 1 stop MEX · 7 km | 1 h 20 m €158-333 IAD · 37 km |
| HoustonIAH, HOU | 2 h 5 m no fares MEX · 7 km | 2 h 55 m no fares DCA · 5 km |
| CancunCUN | 2 h 10 m €123-162 MEX · 7 km | 3 h 15 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 11 h 10 m no fares MEX · 7 km | 7 h 35 m €507-561 1 stop IAD · 37 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 14 h 55 m no fares MEX · 7 km | 13 h 50 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 17 h 30 m €1,075-1211 2 stops MEX · 7 km | 14 h 0 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Mexico City | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya | – |
| Currency | Mexican Peso (MXN) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB127 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-6 | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 2,240 m | 72 m |
| Main airport | Mexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)7 km from centre95 non-stop destinations | Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre103 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Mexico City | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 9,209,944 | 689,545 |
| People per km² | 6,202 | 3,896 |
| Museums within 10 km | 108 | 99 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 6 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 50 | 82 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | 3 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Mexico City or Washington DC somewhere new.