VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Oaxaca or Quito?

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

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • day trips

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

Choose Quito for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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 and Quito are level on 5.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Quito 54: Oaxaca leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, Quito 77: Quito leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca and Quito are level on 40.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, Quito 86: Quito leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Quito 55: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Quito 32: Oaxaca leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Quito 45: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Quito 40: Oaxaca leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Quito 78: Quito leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca and Quito are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, Quito 44: Oaxaca leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and Quito.

Your match

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

Oaxaca
Best match
54match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

Quito
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Oaxaca in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
13 hdaylight a day

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaQuito

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 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. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaQuito
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,555 m2,850 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaQuito
City population258,9131,763,275
People per km²3,0284,735
Museums within 10 km1016
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oaxaca or Quito 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.