VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Sao Paulo?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Akumal leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 56 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Sao Paulo 60: Sao Paulo leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 79 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Sao Paulo 48: Akumal leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Sao Paulo 47: Akumal leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Sao Paulo 52: Akumal leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Sao Paulo 44: Sao Paulo leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 63 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 72 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Sao Paulo 25: Akumal leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Sao Paulo.

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.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on nightlife 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalSao Paulo

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. Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalSao Paulo
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 m760 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalSao Paulo
City population2,15411,451,999
People per km²-7,519
Museums within 10 km090
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Sao Paulo 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.