VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License.

Cancun or Cork?

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
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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

Choose Cork for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Cork’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, Cork 25: Cancun leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Cork 58: Cork leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Cork 40: Cork leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Cork 40: Cancun leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Cork 62: Cancun leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Cork 68: Cork leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Cork 50: Cancun leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Cork 58: Cork leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun and Cork are level on 40.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Cork 33: Cancun leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Cork 45: Cork leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Cork 22: Cancun leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Cork.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Cork
45match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Cork in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunCork

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.

Cork's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Cork: 1991-2020 normals, Cork Airport (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunCork
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, Irish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation5 m0 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunCork
City population888,797222,333
People per km²-5,961
Museums within 10 km15
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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