VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens, Marrakech
MarrakechThe Koutoubia Mosque from its gardens

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Marrakech by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Akumal or Marrakech?

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 Marrakech for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Marrakech’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, Marrakech 7: Akumal leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Marrakech 64: Marrakech leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Marrakech 76: Marrakech leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Marrakech 33: Marrakech leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Marrakech 70: Akumal leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Marrakech 28: Akumal leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Marrakech 25: Akumal leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Marrakech 38: Marrakech leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Marrakech 72: Marrakech leads by 65 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Marrakech 72: Marrakech leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Marrakech 25: Marrakech leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Marrakech 75: Marrakech leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Marrakech.

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.

Marrakech
Best match
49match

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

Marrakech in July

38 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalMarrakech

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. Marrakech: 1991-2020 normals, Marrakech (5.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalMarrakech
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1
Emergency number911Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation11 m465 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsMarrakesh Menara Airport (RAK)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalMarrakech
City population2,1541,002,697
People per km²-4,360
Museums within 10 km014
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 Marrakech 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.