VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Akumal or Boston?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Boston for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Boston’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, Boston 35: Akumal leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Boston 64: Boston leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Boston 72: Boston leads by 66 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Boston 47: Boston leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Boston 60: Akumal leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Boston 72: Boston leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Boston 72: Boston leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Boston 70: Boston leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Boston 55: Boston leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Boston 18: Akumal leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Boston 72: Boston leads by 68 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Boston 30: Akumal leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Boston.

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.

Boston
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalBoston

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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalBoston
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m43 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalBoston
City population2,154675,647
People per km²-2,910
Museums within 10 km051
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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