VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Malaga?

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

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Malaga for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Malaga’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, Malaga 77: Akumal leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Malaga 68: Malaga leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Malaga 65: Malaga leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Malaga 62: Malaga leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Malaga 73: Akumal leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Malaga 87: Malaga leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Akumal and Malaga are level on 70.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Malaga 70: Malaga leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Malaga 55: Malaga leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Malaga 55: Malaga leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Malaga 45: Malaga leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Malaga 42: Akumal leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Malaga.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Malaga
Best match
64match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife 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

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalMalaga

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. Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalMalaga
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation11 m18 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalMalaga
City population2,154599,063
People per km²-1,517
Museums within 10 km032
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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