VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License.

Bologna 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 Bologna for

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

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

Choose Cancun for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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. Bologna 30, Cancun 98: Cancun leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Cancun 44: Bologna leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Cancun 15: Bologna leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Cancun 70: Cancun leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Cancun 66: Cancun leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Cancun 65: Bologna leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Cancun 78: Cancun leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Cancun 25: Bologna leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Cancun 40: Bologna leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Cancun 46: Bologna leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Cancun 17: Bologna leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Cancun 55: Cancun leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Cancun.

Your match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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.

Bologna in July

32 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 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
BolognaCancun

Where the figures come from

Bologna 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.

Bologna's sunshine is measured 82 km from the centre, at Cervia.

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. Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre). Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBolognaCancun
Official languageItalianSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation54 m5 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaCancun
City population387,971888,797
People per km²2,754-
Museums within 10 km681
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Bologna 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.