Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; AlUla by Richard.hargas, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
Akumal or AlUla?
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 Akumal for
- beaches
- day trips
- families
What lies behind each score is written up on Akumal’s own page.
Choose AlUla for
- culture and sights
- live music and the arts
- shopping
What lies behind each score is written up on AlUla’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and AlUla.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.
Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.
What matters to you?
When should you go?
Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.
Akumal in July
AlUla in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
Where the figures come from
Akumal has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.
AlUla 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. Akumal: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. AlUla: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Alula / Al ‘Ulá (23.7 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Akumal | AlUla |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya | Arabic |
| Currency | Mexican Peso (MXN) | Saudi Riyal (SAR) |
| Sockets | AB127 V, 60 Hz | G60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5 | UTC+3 |
| Emergency number | 911 | 112 or 911 |
| Elevation | 11 m | 692 m |
| Main airport | Cancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinations | Al-Ula International Airport (ULH)24 km from centre8 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | - |
By the numbers
| Measure | Akumal | AlUla |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,154 | 32,413 |
| Museums within 10 km | 0 | 2 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | - |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Akumal or AlUla somewhere new.