VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone

Photos: Brisbane by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License.

Brisbane 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 Brisbane for

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

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

Choose Cancun for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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. Brisbane 55, Cancun 98: Cancun leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, Cancun 44: Brisbane leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, Cancun 15: Brisbane leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, Cancun 70: Cancun leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, Cancun 66: Brisbane leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, Cancun 65: Cancun leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Brisbane and Cancun are level on 78.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, Cancun 25: Brisbane leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, Cancun 40: Brisbane leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, Cancun 46: Cancun leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, Cancun 17: Brisbane leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 40, Cancun 55: Cancun leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brisbane and Cancun.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Brisbane
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Brisbane in July

22 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
11 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
BrisbaneCancun

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. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBrisbaneCancun
Official languageEnglishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10UTC-5
Emergency number000911
Elevation0 m5 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneCancun
City population2,706,966888,797
People per km²171-
Museums within 10 km161
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Brisbane 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.