VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; London by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Cancun or London?

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
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose London for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on London’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, London 25: Cancun leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, London 84: London leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, London 94: London leads by 79 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, London 88: London leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, London 57: Cancun leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, London 90: London leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, London 82: London leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, London 85: London leads by 60 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, London 95: London leads by 55 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, London 15: Cancun leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, London 98: London leads by 81 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, London 40: Cancun leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and London.

Your match

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

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

London
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunLondon

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. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunLondon
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation5 m4 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunLondon
City population888,7978,799,728
People per km²-5,598
Museums within 10 km1216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
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 London 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.