VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License.

Bath 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 Bath for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Cancun for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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. Bath 10, Cancun 98: Cancun leads by 88 points.
Food & drink. Bath and Cancun are level on 44.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Cancun 15: Bath leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Cancun 70: Cancun leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Cancun 66: Cancun leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Cancun 65: Bath leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Cancun 78: Cancun leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Cancun 25: Bath leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Cancun 40: Bath leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Cancun 46: Cancun leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Cancun 17: Bath leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Cancun 55: Bath leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bath and Cancun.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Bath
51match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Cancun
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.

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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
BathCancun

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath 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.

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. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBathCancun
Official languageEnglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation132 m5 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathCancun
City population94,092888,797
People per km²3,245-
Museums within 10 km171
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath 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. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.