VacationSelector
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo
The Iguazu Falls in the green jungle, Puerto Iguazu
Puerto IguazuThe Iguazu Falls in the green jungle

Photos: Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Puerto Iguazu by Muhammed Ballan, Pexels License.

Puerto Escondido or Puerto Iguazu?

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 Puerto Escondido for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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

Choose Puerto Iguazu for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Iguazu’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. Puerto Escondido 82, Puerto Iguazu 5: Puerto Escondido leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Escondido 48, Puerto Iguazu 28: Puerto Escondido leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Escondido 8, Puerto Iguazu 9: Puerto Iguazu leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Escondido 45, Puerto Iguazu 14: Puerto Escondido leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Escondido 78, Puerto Iguazu 95: Puerto Iguazu leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Puerto Escondido 35, Puerto Iguazu 33: Puerto Escondido leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Puerto Escondido 42, Puerto Iguazu 55: Puerto Iguazu leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Puerto Escondido 40, Puerto Iguazu 54: Puerto Iguazu leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Escondido 22, Puerto Iguazu 17: Puerto Escondido leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Puerto Escondido 68, Puerto Iguazu 48: Puerto Escondido leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Escondido 12, Puerto Iguazu 7: Puerto Escondido leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Escondido 58, Puerto Iguazu 34: Puerto Escondido leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Escondido and Puerto Iguazu.

Your match

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

Puerto Escondido
Best match
45match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Puerto Iguazu
33match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Puerto Escondido in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Puerto Iguazu in July

22 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
103 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto EscondidoPuerto Iguazu

Where the figures come from

Puerto Escondido's temperatures are measured 66 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Puerto Escondido 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. Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre). Puerto Iguazu: 1991-2020 normals, Iguazu Aerodrome (17.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto EscondidoPuerto Iguazu
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation60 m162 m
Main airportPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsCataratas Del Iguazú International Airport (IGR)18 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto EscondidoPuerto Iguazu
City population29,90354,903
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Puerto Escondido or Puerto Iguazu 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.