VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License.

Beijing 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 Beijing for

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

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

Choose Cancun for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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. Beijing 6, Cancun 98: Cancun leads by 92 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Cancun 44: Beijing leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Cancun 15: Beijing leads by 78 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Cancun 70: Cancun leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Cancun 66: Cancun leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Cancun 65: Beijing leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Cancun 78: Cancun leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Cancun 25: Beijing leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Cancun 40: Beijing leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Cancun 46: Beijing leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Cancun 17: Beijing leads by 51 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing and Cancun are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Cancun.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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.

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
BeijingCancun

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. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBeijingCancun
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation43 m5 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingCancun
City population21,893,095888,797
People per km²1,334-
Museums within 10 km831
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
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 Beijing 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.