VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Chengdu?

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 Chengdu for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Chengdu’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, Chengdu 5: Akumal leads by 83 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Chengdu 86: Chengdu leads by 58 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Chengdu 60: Chengdu leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Chengdu 68: Chengdu leads by 61 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Chengdu 68: Akumal leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Chengdu 65: Akumal leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Chengdu 74: Chengdu leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Chengdu 64: Chengdu leads by 57 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Chengdu 50: Chengdu leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Chengdu 58: Chengdu leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink 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

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalChengdu

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. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalChengdu
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 m500 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalChengdu
City population2,15420,937,757
People per km²-1,456
Museums within 10 km010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Chengdu 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.