VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cancun or Lima?

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
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Lima for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’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, Lima 42: Cancun leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Lima 88: Lima leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Lima 66: Lima leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Lima 62: Cancun leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Lima 45: Cancun leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Lima 34: Cancun leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Lima 42: Cancun leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Lima 35: Lima leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Lima 52: Lima leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Lima 70: Lima leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Lima 53: Lima leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Lima 25: Cancun leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Lima.

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 families with your weighting.

Lima
51match

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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunLima

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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunLima
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Sol (PEN)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number911111 or 911
Elevation5 m154 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunLima
City population888,7979,943,800
People per km²-3,721
Museums within 10 km147
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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