VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta
JakartaThe Istiqlal Mosque

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Jakarta by Antonyus Bunjamin, Pexels License.

Cancun or Jakarta?

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 Jakarta for

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Jakarta’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, Jakarta 28: Cancun leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Jakarta 78: Jakarta leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Jakarta 48: Jakarta leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Jakarta 66: Cancun leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Jakarta 30: Cancun leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Jakarta 45: Cancun leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Jakarta 50: Cancun leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Jakarta 36: Jakarta leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Jakarta 64: Jakarta leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Jakarta 80: Jakarta leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Jakarta 42: Jakarta leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Jakarta 46: Cancun leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Jakarta.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Jakarta
51match

Wins on food and drink and prices 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

Jakarta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CancunJakarta

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. Jakarta: 1991-2020 normals, Jakarta / Observatory (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunJakarta
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaIndonesian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number911112
Elevation5 m91 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsSoekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)20 km from centre89 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCancunJakarta
City population888,79711,135,191
People per km²-16,821
Museums within 10 km144
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Jakarta 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.