VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cancun or Ghent?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Ghent for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Ghent’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, Ghent 25: Cancun leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Ghent 62: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Ghent 72: Ghent leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Ghent 55: Cancun leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Ghent 35: Cancun leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Ghent 88: Ghent leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Ghent 50: Cancun leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Ghent 78: Ghent leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Ghent 50: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Ghent 38: Cancun leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Ghent 60: Ghent leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Ghent 33: Cancun leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Ghent.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Ghent
54match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunGhent

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.

Ghent has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

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. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunGhent
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, German, Dutch
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation5 m12 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunGhent
City population888,797272,657
People per km²-1,728
Museums within 10 km130
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
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 Ghent 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.