VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
A madrasa and its minarets on the Registan, Samarkand
SamarkandA madrasa and its minarets on the Registan

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Samarkand by Yaşar Başkurt, Pexels License.

Akumal or Samarkand?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Samarkand for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Samarkand’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, Samarkand 4: Akumal leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Samarkand 54: Samarkand leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Samarkand 84: Samarkand leads by 78 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Samarkand 14: Samarkand leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Samarkand 40: Akumal leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Samarkand 72: Samarkand leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Samarkand 30: Akumal leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Samarkand 58: Samarkand leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Samarkand 42: Samarkand leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Samarkand 80: Samarkand leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Samarkand 24: Samarkand leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Samarkand 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 Samarkand.

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.

Samarkand
Best match
45match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Samarkand in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalSamarkand

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. Samarkand: 1991-2020 normals, Samarkand (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalSamarkand
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaUzbek
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Uzbekistan Sum (UZS)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCFI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+5
Emergency number911112
Elevation11 m702 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsSamarkand International Airport (SKD)5 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalSamarkand
City population2,154546,303
People per km²-5,058
Museums within 10 km011
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 Samarkand 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.