VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Akumal or Antigua Guatemala?

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
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Antigua Guatemala’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. Akumal 88, Antigua Guatemala 6: Akumal leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Antigua Guatemala 48: Antigua Guatemala leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Antigua Guatemala 68: Antigua Guatemala leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Antigua Guatemala 34: Antigua Guatemala leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Antigua Guatemala 78: Antigua Guatemala leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Antigua Guatemala 55: Akumal leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Antigua Guatemala 38: Akumal leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Antigua Guatemala 60: Antigua Guatemala leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Antigua Guatemala 45: Antigua Guatemala leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Antigua Guatemala 67: Antigua Guatemala leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Antigua Guatemala 22: Antigua Guatemala leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Antigua Guatemala 42: Akumal leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Antigua Guatemala.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Antigua Guatemala
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Akumal in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalAntigua Guatemala

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.

Antigua Guatemala 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalAntigua Guatemala
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Quetzal (GTQ)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency number911Police 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123
Elevation11 m1,582 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalAntigua Guatemala
City population2,15459,091
Museums within 10 km02
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 Akumal or Antigua Guatemala somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.