VacationSelector
The old town hall, Boca Raton
Boca RatonThe old town hall
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone

Photos: Boca Raton by Spudgun67, CC0; Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License.

Boca Raton 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 Boca Raton for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Cancun for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • beaches

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. Boca Raton 82, Cancun 98: Cancun leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Boca Raton and Cancun are level on 44.
Culture & sights. Boca Raton 28, Cancun 15: Boca Raton leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Boca Raton 32, Cancun 70: Cancun leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boca Raton 50, Cancun 66: Cancun leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Boca Raton 60, Cancun 65: Cancun leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Boca Raton 62, Cancun 78: Cancun leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Boca Raton 18, Cancun 25: Cancun leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Boca Raton 54, Cancun 40: Boca Raton leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Boca Raton 22, Cancun 46: Cancun leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boca Raton 33, Cancun 17: Boca Raton leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boca Raton 42, Cancun 55: Cancun leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boca Raton and Cancun.

Your match

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

Boca Raton
44match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

Cancun
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boca Raton in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
191 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Boca RatonCancun

Where the figures come from

Boca Raton 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. Boca Raton: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Pompano Beach / Kendall Green (13.6 km from centre). Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBoca RatonCancun
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m5 m
Main airportFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)33 km from centre138 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBoca RatonCancun
City population97,422888,797
People per km²1,203-
Museums within 10 km51
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boca Raton 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.