VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Akumal or San Jose?

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
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose San Jose for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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, San Jose 30: Akumal leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, San Jose 36: San Jose leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, San Jose 33: San Jose leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, San Jose 72: Akumal leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, San Jose 65: Akumal leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, San Jose 20: Akumal leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, San Jose 30: Akumal leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and San Jose.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

San Jose
Best match
45match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts 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

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalSan Jose

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. San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalSan Jose
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m25 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalSan Jose
City population2,1541,013,240
People per km²-2,167
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 San Jose 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.