VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Cancun or Dublin?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Dublin for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Dublin’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, Dublin 27: Cancun leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Dublin 50: Dublin leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Dublin 64: Dublin leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Dublin 62: Cancun leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Dublin 70: Dublin leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Dublin 72: Dublin leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Dublin 57: Cancun leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Dublin 66: Dublin leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Dublin 54: Dublin leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Dublin 20: Cancun leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Dublin 65: Dublin leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Dublin 25: Cancun leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Dublin.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Dublin
53match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunDublin

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. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunDublin
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 m20 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunDublin
City population888,797592,713
People per km²-5,154
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Dublin 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.