VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0.

Cancun or Florianopolis?

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

  • families
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Florianopolis for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Florianopolis’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, Florianopolis 85: Cancun leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Florianopolis 58: Florianopolis leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Florianopolis 33: Florianopolis leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Florianopolis 60: Cancun leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Florianopolis 78: Florianopolis leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Florianopolis 50: Cancun leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Florianopolis 60: Cancun leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Florianopolis 28: Florianopolis leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Florianopolis 33: Cancun leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Florianopolis 28: Florianopolis leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Florianopolis 45: Cancun leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Florianopolis.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Cancun
52match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Florianopolis
52match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink 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

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunFlorianopolis

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. Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunFlorianopolis
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPortuguese
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation5 m3 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunFlorianopolis
City population888,797587,486
People per km²-870
Museums within 10 km111
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months7 months

Where else could you go?

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