VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River

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

Cancun or Chengdu?

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

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Chengdu for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Chengdu’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, Chengdu 5: Cancun leads by 93 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Chengdu 86: Chengdu leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Chengdu 60: Chengdu leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Chengdu 68: Cancun leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Chengdu 68: Chengdu leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Chengdu 65: Cancun leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Chengdu 74: Chengdu leads by 49 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Chengdu 64: Chengdu leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Chengdu 80: Chengdu leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Chengdu 50: Chengdu leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Chengdu 58: Chengdu leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Chengdu.

Your match

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

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Chengdu
Best match
63match

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

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunChengdu

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. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunChengdu
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPutonghua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation5 m500 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunChengdu
City population888,79720,937,757
People per km²-1,456
Museums within 10 km110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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