VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Kathmandu?

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
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Kathmandu for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Kathmandu’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, Kathmandu 4: Akumal leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Kathmandu 55: Kathmandu leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Kathmandu 82: Kathmandu leads by 76 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Kathmandu 36: Kathmandu leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Kathmandu 70: Akumal leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Kathmandu 56: Akumal leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Kathmandu 20: Akumal leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Kathmandu 25: Kathmandu leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Kathmandu 55: Kathmandu leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Kathmandu 97: Kathmandu leads by 61 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Kathmandu 28: Kathmandu leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Kathmandu 45: Akumal leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Kathmandu.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Kathmandu
Best match
48match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalKathmandu

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. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalKathmandu
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaNepali
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+5:45
Emergency number911Police 100, ambulance 102, fire 101
Elevation11 m1,300 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalKathmandu
City population2,154845,767
People per km²-17,121
Museums within 10 km09
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Kathmandu 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.