VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Salvador?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Salvador for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Akumal leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 68 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 63 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Salvador 52: Akumal leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Salvador 56: Akumal leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Salvador 42: Akumal leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 59 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Salvador 32: Akumal leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Salvador.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

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

Salvador
Best match
58match

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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalSalvador

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. Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalSalvador
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPortuguese
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation11 m8 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalSalvador
City population2,1542,417,678
People per km²-3,489
Museums within 10 km049
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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