VacationSelector
Santo Domingo church behind agaves, Oaxaca
OaxacaSanto Domingo church behind agaves
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

Photos: Oaxaca by Öskr Rck, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Vancouver by Xicotencatl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Oaxaca or Vancouver?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Vancouver for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Oaxaca 84, Vancouver 72: Oaxaca leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Oaxaca 74, Vancouver 42: Oaxaca leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Oaxaca 40, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Oaxaca 62, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Oaxaca 65, Vancouver 45: Oaxaca leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Oaxaca 40, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Oaxaca 55, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Oaxaca 62, Vancouver 55: Oaxaca leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Oaxaca 77, Vancouver 27: Oaxaca leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Oaxaca 38, Vancouver 52: Vancouver leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Oaxaca and Vancouver are level on 50.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Oaxaca
54match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Vancouver
56match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
OaxacaVancouver

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Oaxaca: 1961-1990 normals, Oaxaca, Oax. (1.1 km from centre). Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOaxacaVancouver
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,555 m2 m
Main airportXoxocotlán International Airport (OAX)7 km from centre14 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOaxacaVancouver
City population258,913662,248
People per km²3,0285,759
Museums within 10 km1026
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 Vancouver 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.