VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Oaxaca or Orange Beach?

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 Oaxaca for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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

Choose Orange Beach for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Orange Beach’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. Oaxaca 5, Orange Beach 86: Orange Beach leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Orange Beach 40: Oaxaca leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, Orange Beach 7: Oaxaca leads by 67 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, Orange Beach 30: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, Orange Beach 60: Oaxaca leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Orange Beach 50: Oaxaca leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Orange Beach 75: Orange Beach leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Orange Beach 15: Oaxaca leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Orange Beach 25: Oaxaca leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Orange Beach 38: Oaxaca leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca 38, Orange Beach 32: Oaxaca leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, Orange Beach 32: Oaxaca leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and Orange Beach.

Your match

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

Oaxaca
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaOrange Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaOrange Beach
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,555 m4 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaOrange Beach
City population258,9138,095
People per km²3,028196
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oaxaca or Orange Beach 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.