VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License.

Cancun or Huntington Beach?

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

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Huntington Beach for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Huntington Beach’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, Huntington Beach 70: Cancun leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Huntington Beach 46: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Huntington Beach 14: Cancun leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Huntington Beach 38: Cancun leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Huntington Beach 58: Cancun leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Huntington Beach 63: Cancun leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Huntington Beach 82: Huntington Beach leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Huntington Beach 20: Cancun leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Huntington Beach 42: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Huntington Beach 28: Cancun leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Huntington Beach 33: Huntington Beach leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Huntington Beach 36: Cancun leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Huntington Beach.

Your match

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

Cancun
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on live music and the arts and families 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunHuntington Beach

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. Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunHuntington Beach
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation5 m12 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunHuntington Beach
City population888,797198,711
People per km²-2,406
Museums within 10 km13
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 Huntington Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.