VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
Ushuaia below snow-capped mountains, Ushuaia
UshuaiaUshuaia below snow-capped mountains

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Ushuaia by Jan Tang, Pexels License.

Akumal or Ushuaia?

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
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Ushuaia for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Ushuaia’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, Ushuaia 3: Akumal leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Ushuaia 40: Ushuaia leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Ushuaia 22: Ushuaia leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Ushuaia 18: Ushuaia leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Ushuaia 88: Ushuaia leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Ushuaia 14: Akumal leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Ushuaia 40: Akumal leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Ushuaia 45: Ushuaia leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Ushuaia 22: Ushuaia leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Ushuaia 42: Ushuaia leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Ushuaia 10: Ushuaia leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Ushuaia 26: Akumal leads by 29 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Ushuaia.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Ushuaia
31match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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

Ushuaia in July

4 °Cdaytime high
0 °Cnight-time low
36 mmrain in the month
2 hsunshine a day
No seasea
8 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalUshuaia

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. Ushuaia: 1991-2020 normals, Ushuaia Aerodrome (1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalUshuaia
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation11 m23 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsUshuaia - Malvinas Argentinas International Airport (USH)4 km from centre9 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalUshuaia
City population2,15482,615
People per km²-3,592
Museums within 10 km05
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 Ushuaia 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.