VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License.

Akumal or Beijing?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Beijing for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Beijing’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, Beijing 6: Akumal leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Beijing 81: Beijing leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Beijing 93: Beijing leads by 87 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Beijing 58: Beijing leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Beijing 60: Akumal leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Beijing 85: Beijing leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Beijing 64: Akumal leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Beijing 69: Beijing leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Beijing 72: Beijing leads by 65 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Beijing 68: Beijing leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Beijing 68: Beijing leads by 64 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal and Beijing are level on 55.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Beijing.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalBeijing

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.

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. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalBeijing
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPutonghua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation11 m43 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalBeijing
City population2,15421,893,095
People per km²-1,334
Museums within 10 km083
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km06
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 Beijing 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.