VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Akumal or Portofino?

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

  • families
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Portofino for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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, Portofino 60: Akumal leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Portofino 36: Portofino leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Portofino 22: Portofino leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Portofino 14: Portofino leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal and Portofino are level on 77.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Portofino 33: Akumal leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Portofino 29: Portofino leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Portofino 9: Akumal leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Portofino 7: Portofino leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Portofino 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 Portofino.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Akumal
39match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on getting around 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalPortofino

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.

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalPortofino
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaItalian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation11 m20 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalPortofino
City population2,154355
People per km²-142
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Akumal or Portofino 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.