VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Akumal or Sydney?

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

  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Sydney for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 49 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 53 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Sydney 50: Akumal leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 61 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Sydney 22: Akumal leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 69 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal and Sydney are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Sydney.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalSydney

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. Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalSydney
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation11 m6 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalSydney
City population2,1545,450,496
People per km²-449
Museums within 10 km038
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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