VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Oaxaca or Riga?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Riga for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Riga leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Riga 52: Oaxaca leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, Riga 66: Oaxaca leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, Riga 52: Riga leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, Riga 55: Oaxaca leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Riga 60: Oaxaca leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Riga 50: Riga leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Riga 68: Riga leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Riga 45: Oaxaca leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Riga 62: Oaxaca leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca 38, Riga 65: Riga leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca and Riga are level on 50.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and Riga.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Oaxaca
54match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

Riga
55match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaRiga

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaRiga
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaLatvian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation1,555 m6 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaRiga
City population258,913588,911
People per km²3,028-
Museums within 10 km1012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Oaxaca or Riga 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.