VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Akumal or Riga?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Riga for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Akumal leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Riga 52: Riga leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Riga 66: Riga leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Riga 52: Riga leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Riga 55: Akumal leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Riga 60: Akumal leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Riga 50: Akumal leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Riga 68: Riga leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Riga 45: Riga leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Riga 62: Riga leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Riga 65: Riga leads by 61 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Riga 50: Akumal leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Riga.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

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

Riga
Best match
55match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalRiga

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. Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalRiga
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaLatvian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation11 m6 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalRiga
City population2,154588,911
Museums within 10 km012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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