VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Bilbao?

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
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Bilbao for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Bilbao’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, Bilbao 45: Akumal leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Bilbao 81: Bilbao leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Bilbao 62: Bilbao leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Bilbao 54: Bilbao leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Bilbao 75: Akumal leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Bilbao 78: Bilbao leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Bilbao 55: Akumal leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Bilbao 79: Bilbao leads by 61 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Bilbao 47: Bilbao leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Bilbao 44: Bilbao leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Bilbao 53: Bilbao leads by 49 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Bilbao 33: Akumal leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Bilbao.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Bilbao
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around 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.

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

Bilbao in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
54 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalBilbao

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. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalBilbao
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation11 m19 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalBilbao
City population2,154351,124
People per km²-8,440
Museums within 10 km017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Akumal or Bilbao 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.