VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

Oaxaca or Seattle?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Seattle for

  • live music and the arts
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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, Seattle 30: Seattle leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Seattle 66: Oaxaca leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, Seattle 50: Oaxaca leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, Seattle 87: Seattle leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Seattle 55: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Seattle 64: Seattle leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Seattle 60: Seattle leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Seattle 52: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Seattle 22: Oaxaca leads by 55 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca 38, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca 50, Seattle 40: Oaxaca leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

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 prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Seattle
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and beaches 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

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaSeattle

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaSeattle
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,555 m40 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaSeattle
City population258,913737,015
People per km²3,0281,996
Museums within 10 km1027
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Seattle 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.