VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Akumal or Biarritz?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Biarritz for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Biarritz’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, Biarritz 68: Akumal leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Biarritz 62: Biarritz leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Biarritz 33: Biarritz leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Biarritz 36: Biarritz leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Biarritz 74: Akumal leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Biarritz 80: Biarritz leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Biarritz 62: Akumal leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Biarritz 58: Biarritz leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Biarritz 42: Biarritz leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Biarritz 30: Akumal leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Biarritz 38: Biarritz leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Biarritz 64: Biarritz leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Biarritz.

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.

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around 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

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 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
AkumalBiarritz

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. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalBiarritz
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation11 m0 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalBiarritz
City population2,15426,206
People per km²-2,240
Museums within 10 km08
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Akumal or Biarritz 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. 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.