VacationSelector
Skiers among snow-covered firs, Beaver Creek
Beaver CreekSkiers among snow-covered firs
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone

Photos: Beaver Creek by Joe Lin, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License.

Beaver Creek 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 Beaver Creek for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Cancun for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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. Beaver Creek 6, Cancun 98: Cancun leads by 92 points.
Food & drink. Beaver Creek 38, Cancun 44: Cancun leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Beaver Creek 7, Cancun 15: Cancun leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Beaver Creek 12, Cancun 70: Cancun leads by 58 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beaver Creek 90, Cancun 66: Beaver Creek leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Beaver Creek 40, Cancun 65: Cancun leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Beaver Creek 62, Cancun 78: Cancun leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Beaver Creek 45, Cancun 25: Beaver Creek leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Beaver Creek 22, Cancun 40: Cancun leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Beaver Creek 5, Cancun 46: Cancun leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beaver Creek 36, Cancun 17: Beaver Creek leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beaver Creek and Cancun are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beaver Creek and Cancun.

Your match

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

Beaver Creek
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Cancun
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.

Beaver Creek in July

29 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Cancun in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Beaver CreekCancun

Where the figures come from

Beaver Creek's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Eagle County / Gypsum.

Beaver Creek's station stands 268 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Beaver Creek 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. Beaver Creek: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Eagle County / Gypsum (33.8 km from centre). Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBeaver CreekCancun
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,264 m5 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)34 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeaver CreekCancun
City population-888,797
Museums within 10 km01
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 Beaver Creek or Cancun 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.