VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Beijing 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 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 Tulum for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Beijing 6, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Tulum 52: Beijing leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Tulum 30: Beijing leads by 63 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Tulum 76: Tulum leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Tulum 68: Beijing leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Tulum 60: Beijing leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Tulum 25: Beijing leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Tulum 35: Beijing leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Tulum 30: Beijing leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Tulum 15: Beijing leads by 53 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Tulum.

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.

Tulum
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Tulum in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
116 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
BeijingTulum

Where the figures come from

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

Before you go

MeasureBeijingTulum
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 destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingTulum
City population21,893,09533,374
People per km²1,334-
Museums within 10 km830
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 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). 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.