VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
MacauThe Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Macau by tian Jin, Pexels License.

Akumal or Macau?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Macau for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Macau’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, Macau 24: Akumal leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Macau 77: Macau leads by 49 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Macau 62: Macau leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Macau 40: Macau leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Macau 5: Akumal leads by 72 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Macau 52: Akumal leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Macau 48: Akumal leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Macau 60: Macau leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Macau 58: Macau leads by 51 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Macau 44: Macau leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Macau 36: Macau leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Macau 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 Macau.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Macau
Best match
46match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Macau in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
281 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalMacau

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. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalMacau
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPortuguese, Cantonese, Standard Chinese
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Pataca (MOP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzFGM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number911999
Elevation11 m22 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalMacau
City population2,154682,100
People per km²-5,916
Museums within 10 km028
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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