VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Oaxaca or Salvador?

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

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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

Choose Salvador for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Salvador 66: Oaxaca leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca and Salvador are level on 74.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, Salvador 52: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Salvador 56: Oaxaca leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Salvador 42: Oaxaca leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Salvador 42: Oaxaca leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Salvador 70: Oaxaca leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca 38, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, Salvador 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 Salvador.

Your match

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

Oaxaca
54match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Salvador
Best match
58match

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.

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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaSalvador

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaSalvador
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPortuguese
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation1,555 m8 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaSalvador
City population258,9132,417,678
People per km²3,0283,489
Museums within 10 km1049
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Oaxaca or Salvador 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.