VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License.

Cancun or Colombo?

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 Colombo for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Colombo’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, Colombo 55: Cancun leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Colombo 66: Colombo leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Colombo 45: Colombo leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Colombo 35: Cancun leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Colombo 32: Cancun leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Colombo 50: Cancun leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Colombo 35: Cancun leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Colombo 35: Colombo leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Colombo 45: Colombo leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Colombo 78: Colombo leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Colombo 30: Colombo leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Colombo 48: Cancun leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Colombo.

Your match

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

Cancun
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Colombo
46match

Wins on prices 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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CancunColombo

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunColombo
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+5:30
Emergency number911Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation5 m1 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCancunColombo
City population888,797647,557
People per km²-17,361
Museums within 10 km110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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