VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Cancun or Cannes?

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 Cancun for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Cannes for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Cannes’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. Cancun 98, Cannes 80: Cancun leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Cannes 55: Cannes leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Cannes 38: Cannes leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Cannes 42: Cancun leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Cannes 72: Cannes leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Cannes 86: Cannes leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Cannes 56: Cancun leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Cannes 68: Cannes leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Cannes 60: Cannes leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Cannes 22: Cancun leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Cannes 38: Cannes leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Cannes 42: Cancun leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Cannes.

Your match

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

Cancun
52match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Cannes
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunCannes

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. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunCannes
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation5 m0 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunCannes
City population888,79774,350
People per km²-3,793
Museums within 10 km116
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Cannes somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.