VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
A dhow below the towers of West Bay, Doha
DohaA dhow below the towers of West Bay

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Doha by Gregory Hawken Kramer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Doha?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Doha for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Doha’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, Doha 45: Akumal leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Doha 55: Doha leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Doha 55: Doha leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Doha 20: Doha leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Doha 7: Akumal leads by 70 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Doha 5: Akumal leads by 63 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Doha 60: Akumal leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Doha 45: Doha leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Doha 60: Doha leads by 53 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Doha 38: Doha leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Doha 30: Doha leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Doha 38: Akumal leads by 17 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Akumal
39match

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

Doha
38match

Wins on shopping 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Doha in July

43 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalDoha

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. Doha: 1991-2020 normals, Doha International Airport (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalDoha
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaArabic
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Qatari Rial (QAR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+3
Emergency number911999
Elevation11 m0 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsHamad International Airport (DOH)8 km from centre194 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalDoha
City population2,1541,186,023
People per km²-8,985
Museums within 10 km06
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months9 months

Where else could you go?

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