VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License.

Austin or Cancun?

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 Austin for

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

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

Choose Cancun for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Cancun’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. Austin 30, Cancun 98: Cancun leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Cancun 44: Austin leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Austin 40, Cancun 15: Austin leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Cancun 70: Cancun leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Cancun 66: Cancun leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, Cancun 65: Cancun leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, Cancun 78: Cancun leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Cancun 25: Austin leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Cancun 40: Austin leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Cancun 46: Cancun leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Cancun 17: Austin leads by 60 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin 40, Cancun 55: Cancun leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Austin
50match

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

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Cancun in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AustinCancun

Where the figures come from

Cancun 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. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre). Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAustinCancun
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation149 m5 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinCancun
City population961,855888,797
People per km²1,217-
Museums within 10 km211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Austin or Cancun 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). 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. 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.