VacationSelector
The Red Tower and the harbour, Alanya
AlanyaThe Red Tower and the harbour
The yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo, Merida
MeridaThe yellow Palacio Canton on Paseo de Montejo

Photos: Alanya by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License; Merida by Mariposa2723, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Alanya or Merida?

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 Alanya for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Merida for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Merida’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. Alanya 84, Merida 50: Alanya leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Alanya 43, Merida 72: Merida leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Alanya 44, Merida 64: Merida leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Alanya 58, Merida 42: Alanya leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alanya 68, Merida 48: Alanya leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Alanya 62, Merida 80: Merida leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Alanya 70, Merida 50: Alanya leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Alanya 50, Merida 45: Alanya leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Alanya 34, Merida 50: Merida leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Alanya 65, Merida 75: Merida leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alanya 15, Merida 52: Merida leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alanya 56, Merida 40: Alanya leads by 16 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alanya and Merida.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Alanya
54match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Merida
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alanya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Merida in July

35 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
148 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AlanyaMerida

Where the figures come from

Alanya 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. Alanya: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Merida: 1991-2020 normals, Merida / lic Manuel Crecencio (5.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlanyaMerida
Official languageTurkishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6
Emergency number112911
Elevation10 m12 m
Main airportGazipaşa-Alanya Airport (GZP)38 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsManuel Crescencio Rejón International Airport (MID)5 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlanyaMerida
City population364,180892,363
People per km²2281,010
Museums within 10 km25
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alanya or Merida somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.