VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The red aerial tram nearing the top of Hidden Peak, Snowbird
SnowbirdThe red aerial tram nearing the top of Hidden Peak

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Snowbird by VeggieGarden, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Akumal or Snowbird?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Snowbird for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Snowbird’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, Snowbird 5: Akumal leads by 83 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Snowbird 20: Akumal leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Snowbird 5: Akumal leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Snowbird 9: Snowbird leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Snowbird 92: Snowbird leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Snowbird 47: Akumal leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Snowbird 42: Akumal leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Snowbird 40: Snowbird leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Snowbird 8: Snowbird leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Snowbird 15: Akumal leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Snowbird 8: Snowbird leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Snowbird 40: Akumal leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Snowbird.

Your match

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

Akumal
Best match
39match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Snowbird
28match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Snowbird in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalSnowbird

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.

Snowbird 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. Snowbird: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAkumalSnowbird
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m2,479 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)36 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalSnowbird
City population2,154-
Museums within 10 km00
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 Snowbird 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.