VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
Surfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach, Gold Coast
Gold CoastSurfers Paradise from Narrowneck Beach

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Gold Coast by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Gold Coast?

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
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Gold Coast for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Gold Coast’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, Gold Coast 92: Gold Coast leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Gold Coast 47: Gold Coast leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Gold Coast 15: Gold Coast leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Gold Coast 55: Gold Coast leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Gold Coast 82: Gold Coast leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Gold Coast 52: Akumal leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Gold Coast 89: Gold Coast leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Gold Coast 45: Gold Coast leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Gold Coast 40: Gold Coast leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Gold Coast 35: Akumal leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Gold Coast 30: Gold Coast leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Gold Coast 42: Akumal leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Gold Coast.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

Gold Coast
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and shopping 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

Gold Coast in July

22 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalGold Coast

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.

Gold Coast's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Brisbane Airport.

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. Gold Coast: 1991-2020 normals, Gold Coast Seaway (13 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalGold Coast
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+10
Emergency number911000
Elevation11 m12 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsGold Coast Airport (OOL)20 km from centre19 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalGold Coast
City population2,154607,665
People per km²-433
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 Gold Coast 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.