VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
The lighthouse and the peninsula in evening light, Punta del Este
Punta del EsteThe lighthouse and the peninsula in evening light

Photos: Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Punta del Este by Marcelo Campi, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Orange Beach or Punta del Este?

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 Orange Beach for

  • families
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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. Orange Beach 86, Punta del Este 72: Orange Beach leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, Punta del Este 22: Punta del Este leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, Punta del Este 60: Punta del Este leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, Punta del Este 55: Orange Beach leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, Punta del Este 45: Orange Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, Punta del Este 55: Orange Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, Punta del Este 35: Punta del Este leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, Punta del Este 42: Punta del Este leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach 38, Punta del Este 20: Orange Beach leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach 32, Punta del Este 22: Orange Beach leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach and Punta del Este are level on 32.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orange Beach and Punta del Este.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on families and prices with your weighting.

Punta del Este
42match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Orange BeachPunta del Este

Where the figures come from

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre). Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachPunta del Este
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m11 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachPunta del Este
City population8,0959,277
People per km²196455
Museums within 10 km05
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Orange Beach or Punta del Este 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.