VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky, Xi'an
Xi'anThe Bell Tower of Xi'an under a blue sky

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Xi'an by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Akumal or Xi'an?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Xi'an for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Xi'an’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, Xi'an 4: Akumal leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Xi'an 70: Xi'an leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Xi'an 81: Xi'an leads by 75 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Xi'an 42: Xi'an leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Xi'an 62: Akumal leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Xi'an 48: Akumal leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Xi'an 66: Xi'an leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Xi'an 50: Xi'an leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Xi'an 80: Xi'an leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Xi'an 40: Xi'an leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Xi'an 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 Xi'an.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Xi'an
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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

Xi'an in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalXi'an

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. Xi'an: 1991-2020 normals, Xi'An (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalXi'an
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPutonghua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation11 m405 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsXi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY)26 km from centre178 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalXi'an
City population2,15412,952,907
People per km²-1,283
Museums within 10 km09
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Xi'an 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.