VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Oaxaca or Santiago de Compostela?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Santiago de Compostela for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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, Santiago de Compostela 32: Santiago de Compostela leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Santiago de Compostela 68: Oaxaca leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, Santiago de Compostela 70: Oaxaca leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, Santiago de Compostela 45: Santiago de Compostela leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca and Santiago de Compostela are level on 62.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Santiago de Compostela 72: Santiago de Compostela leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Santiago de Compostela 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Santiago de Compostela 35: Oaxaca leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Santiago de Compostela 64: Oaxaca leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca 38, Santiago de Compostela 40: Santiago de Compostela leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, Santiago de Compostela 42: Oaxaca leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Oaxaca and Santiago de Compostela.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Oaxaca
54match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Santiago de Compostela
54match

Wins on beaches and getting around 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

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaSantiago de Compostela

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaSantiago de Compostela
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation1,555 m260 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaSantiago de Compostela
City population258,913100,965
People per km²3,028459
Museums within 10 km106
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Santiago de Compostela 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.