VacationSelector
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: Budapest by Perituss, CC0; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Budapest 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 Budapest for

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

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

Choose Tulum for

  • beaches
  • 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. Budapest 25, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Budapest 63, Tulum 52: Budapest leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Budapest 80, Tulum 30: Budapest leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Budapest 78, Tulum 60: Budapest leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Budapest 58, Tulum 76: Tulum leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Budapest and Tulum are level on 68.
Good for families. Budapest 62, Tulum 60: Budapest leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Budapest 78, Tulum 25: Budapest leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Budapest 55, Tulum 35: Budapest leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Budapest 62, Tulum 30: Budapest leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Budapest 76, Tulum 15: Budapest leads by 61 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Budapest 98, Tulum 85: Budapest leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Budapest and Tulum.

Your match

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

Budapest
Best match
67match

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

Tulum
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.

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
BudapestTulum

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. Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBudapestTulum
Official languageHungarianSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyForint (HUF)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation117 m5 m
Main airportBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBudapestTulum
City population1,675,77733,374
People per km²3,191-
Museums within 10 km810
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Budapest 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.