VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon
LyonThe Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Lyon by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Akumal or Lyon?

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
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Lyon for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Lyon’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, Lyon 12: Akumal leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Lyon 84: Lyon leads by 56 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Lyon 64: Akumal leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Lyon 62: Akumal leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 59 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 51 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Lyon 42: Lyon leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Lyon 68: Lyon leads by 64 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Lyon 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 Lyon.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Lyon
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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

Lyon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalLyon

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. Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalLyon
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation11 m160 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre141 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalLyon
City population2,154519,127
People per km²-10,838
Museums within 10 km043
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 Lyon 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.