VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
A skier in powder among snow-covered firs at Marmot Basin, Jasper
JasperA skier in powder among snow-covered firs at Marmot Basin

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Jasper by Marmot Basin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cancun or Jasper?

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
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Jasper for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Jasper’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, Jasper 25: Cancun leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Jasper 22: Cancun leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Jasper 10: Cancun leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Jasper 14: Cancun leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Jasper 95: Jasper leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Jasper 8: Cancun leads by 57 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Jasper 42: Cancun leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Jasper 18: Cancun leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Jasper 12: Cancun leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Jasper 20: Cancun leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Jasper 7: Cancun leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Jasper 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 Jasper.

Your match

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

Cancun
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Jasper
27match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Jasper in July

24 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunJasper

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. Jasper: 1991-2020 normals, Jasper Warden (7.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunJasper
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation5 m1,060 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsEdmonton International Airport (YEG)304 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunJasper
City population888,7974,738
People per km²-5
Museums within 10 km11
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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