VacationSelector
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Puerto Escondido or San Sebastian?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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, San Sebastian 68: Puerto Escondido leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Puerto Escondido 48, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Puerto Escondido 8, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Puerto Escondido 45, San Sebastian 44: Puerto Escondido leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Puerto Escondido 78, San Sebastian 72: Puerto Escondido leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Puerto Escondido 35, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Puerto Escondido 42, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Puerto Escondido 40, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Puerto Escondido 22, San Sebastian 40: San Sebastian leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Puerto Escondido 68, San Sebastian 32: Puerto Escondido leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Puerto Escondido 12, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Puerto Escondido 58, San Sebastian 50: Puerto Escondido leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Puerto Escondido and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

Puerto Escondido
45match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Puerto EscondidoSan Sebastian

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.

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePuerto EscondidoSan Sebastian
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
Elevation60 m6 m
Main airportPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePuerto EscondidoSan Sebastian
City population29,903189,866
People per km²-3,118
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Puerto Escondido or San Sebastian 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.