VacationSelector
The Brandenburg Gate, Berlin
BerlinThe Brandenburg Gate
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone

Photos: Berlin by Claudia Solano, Pexels License; Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License.

Berlin 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 Berlin for

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

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

Choose Cancun for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Berlin 38, Cancun 98: Cancun leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Berlin 66, Cancun 44: Berlin leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Berlin 86, Cancun 15: Berlin leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. Berlin 98, Cancun 70: Berlin leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Berlin 50, Cancun 66: Cancun leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Berlin 66, Cancun 65: Berlin leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Berlin 76, Cancun 78: Cancun leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Berlin 82, Cancun 25: Berlin leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. Berlin 68, Cancun 40: Berlin leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Berlin 48, Cancun 46: Berlin leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Berlin 90, Cancun 17: Berlin leads by 73 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Berlin and Cancun are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Berlin and Cancun.

Your match

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

Berlin
Best match
69match

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

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Berlin in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
76 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
BerlinCancun

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. Berlin: 1991-2020 normals, Berlin / Alexanderplatz (0.9 km from centre). Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBerlinCancun
Official languageGermanSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation34 m5 m
Main airportBerlin Brandenburg Airport (BER)19 km from centre161 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBerlinCancun
City population3,700,577888,797
People per km²4,153-
Museums within 10 km1571
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 Berlin 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.