VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Cartagena?

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

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Cartagena for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Cartagena’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, Cartagena 70: Akumal leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Cartagena 62: Cartagena leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Cartagena 68: Cartagena leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Cartagena 70: Cartagena leads by 63 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Cartagena 46: Akumal leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Cartagena 33: Akumal leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Cartagena 40: Akumal leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Cartagena 54: Cartagena leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Cartagena 48: Cartagena leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Cartagena 60: Cartagena leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Cartagena 40: Cartagena leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Cartagena 40: Akumal leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Cartagena.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on nightlife 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

Cartagena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
124 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalCartagena

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. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalCartagena
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation11 m2 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalCartagena
City population2,154914,552
People per km²-1,599
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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