Cancun or Melbourne?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and value for money with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and nightlife with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cancun leads by 42 points.42
| Cancun | Melbourne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 97 | 55 |
| Swim season months | 12 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 23 | 19 |
| Coast distance | 3 km | 4 km |
| Water distance | 3 km | 4 km |
Places to eat. Melbourne leads by 21 points.21
| Cancun | Melbourne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 75 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 681 | 1,888 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 29 |
Museums & heritage. Melbourne leads by 29 points.29
| Cancun | Melbourne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 49 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 42 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 1 | 24 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 100 | 57 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
Nightlife. Melbourne leads by 38 points.38
| Cancun | Melbourne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 74 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 270 | 1,921 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 175 | 1,200 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 65 | 62 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 33 | 124 |
Nature & day trips. Cancun leads by 11 points.11
| Cancun | Melbourne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 43 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 9 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 45 | 81 |
| Park area within 2 km | 66 hectares | 166 hectares |
Good for families. Melbourne leads by 28 points.28
| Cancun | Melbourne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 60 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 2 | 26 |
| Park area within 2 km | 66 hectares | 166 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Melbourne leads by 53 points.53
| Cancun | Melbourne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 4 | 57 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 5 | 103 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Cancun leads by 26 points.26
| Cancun | Melbourne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 50 |
| Price level global | 54.2 | 90.2 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Cancun leads by 5 points.5
| Cancun | Melbourne | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 76 |
| Monthly daytime high | 26.2 °C to 30.3 °C | 13.6 °C to 26.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 224 mm | 45 mm to 69 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Cancun | Melbourne |
|---|---|---|
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 4 h 40 m €319-382 1 stop CUN · 14 km | 15 h 40 m no fares MEL · 19 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 2 h 35 m €292-400 1 stop CUN · 14 km | 17 h 40 m no fares MEL · 19 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 5 h 15 m no fares CUN · 14 km | 15 h 35 m no fares MEL · 19 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 12 h 55 m no fares CUN · 14 km | 17 h 55 m no fares MEL · 19 km |
| SantiagoSCL | 8 h 5 m no fares CUN · 14 km | 13 h 55 m no fares MEL · 19 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Cancun | Melbourne |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya | English |
| Currency | Mexican Peso (MXN) | Australian Dollar (AUD) |
| Sockets | AB127 V, 60 Hz | I230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC-5 | UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 000 |
| Elevation | 5 m | 31 m |
| Main airport | Cancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre136 non-stop destinations | Melbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre66 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cancun | Melbourne |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 888,797 | 5,350,705 |
| People per km² | – | 535 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 42 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 31 | 86 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Melbourne somewhere new.