VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Interlaken?

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
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Interlaken for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Interlaken’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, Interlaken 30: Akumal leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Interlaken 25: Akumal leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Interlaken 8: Interlaken leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Interlaken 15: Interlaken leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Interlaken 97: Interlaken leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Interlaken 78: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Interlaken 72: Interlaken leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Interlaken 80: Interlaken leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Interlaken 22: Interlaken leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Interlaken 8: Akumal leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Interlaken 15: Interlaken leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Interlaken 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 Interlaken.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Akumal
39match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Interlaken
41match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalInterlaken

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.

Interlaken has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalInterlaken
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation11 m571 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalInterlaken
City population2,1546,123
People per km²-1,424
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Interlaken 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.