VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Akumal or Lima?

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
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Lima for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’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, Lima 42: Akumal leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Lima 88: Lima leads by 60 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Lima 66: Lima leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Lima 62: Lima leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Lima 45: Akumal leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Lima 34: Akumal leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Lima 42: Akumal leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Lima 35: Lima leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Lima 52: Lima leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Lima 70: Lima leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Lima 53: Lima leads by 49 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Lima 25: Akumal leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Lima.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on food and drink 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalLima

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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalLima
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Sol (PEN)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number911111 or 911
Elevation11 m154 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalLima
City population2,1549,943,800
People per km²-3,721
Museums within 10 km047
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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