VacationSelector
The Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla, AlUla
AlUlaThe Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: AlUla by Richard.hargas, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

AlUla or Tulum?

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 AlUla for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Tulum for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Tulum’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. AlUla 3, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. AlUla 28, Tulum 52: Tulum leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. AlUla 70, Tulum 30: AlUla leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. AlUla 5, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. AlUla 72, Tulum 76: Tulum leads by 4 points.
Day trips. AlUla 20, Tulum 68: Tulum leads by 48 points.
Good for families. AlUla 35, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 25 points.
Getting around. AlUla 15, Tulum 25: Tulum leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. AlUla 15, Tulum 35: Tulum leads by 20 points.
Affordability. AlUla 18, Tulum 30: Tulum leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. AlUla 28, Tulum 15: AlUla leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. AlUla 45, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: AlUla and Tulum.

Your match

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

AlUla
30match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tulum
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

AlUla in July

43 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Tulum in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AlUlaTulum

Where the figures come from

AlUla has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Tulum 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. AlUla: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Alula / Al ‘Ulá (23.7 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAlUlaTulum
Official languageArabicSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencySaudi Riyal (SAR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5
Emergency number112 or 911911
Elevation692 m5 m
Main airportAl-Ula International Airport (ULH)24 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlUlaTulum
City population32,41333,374
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.