Cancun or Miami?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money and year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Cancun if the trip is mainly about the sea and you want heat that barely shifts through the year, with beaches close to where you stay and summer rain that is heavy but lighter than Miami's.
Choose Miami if you want a centre you can walk, with notable places, museums and nightlife close together, a wider range of kitchens, and more protected land within reach for days out.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cancun leads by 2 points.2
| Cancun | Miami | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 97 | 95 |
| Swim season months | 12 | 12 |
| Beaches 10 km | 23 | 20 |
| Coast distance | 3 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 3 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. Miami leads by 11 points.11
| Cancun | Miami | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 65 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 681 | 898 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 29 |
Museums & heritage. Miami leads by 3 points.3
| Cancun | Miami | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 23 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 28 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 1 | 6 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 100 | 21 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Miami leads by 14 points.14
| Cancun | Miami | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 50 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 270 | 538 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 175 | 287 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 65 | 53 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 33 | 63 |
Nature & day trips. Miami leads by 18 points.18
| Cancun | Miami | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 72 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 9 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 45 | 48 |
| Park area within 2 km | 66 hectares | 50 hectares |
Good for families. Miami leads by 12 points.12
| Cancun | Miami | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 44 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 2 | 14 |
| Park area within 2 km | 66 hectares | 50 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Miami leads by 38 points.38
| Cancun | Miami | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 4 | 42 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 5 | 45 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Cancun leads by 33 points.33
| Cancun | Miami | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 43 |
| Price level global | 54.2 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Cancun leads by 7 points.7
| Cancun | Miami | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 74 |
| Monthly daytime high | 26.2 °C to 30.3 °C | 24.7 °C to 32.7 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 224 mm | 47 mm to 267 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 0 |
Where they differ
Cancun's edge is steady weather. Highs hold to 26-30°C all year against Miami's 25-33°C, and it has one month at 40mm of rain or less where Miami has none. It has more park space near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach against Miami's 2.
Miami has many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, many times as many museums, about twice as many bars and clubs, and a wider range of kitchens. Protected land covers 16% around Miami against 9% around Cancun.
Where they are alike
Both are beach cities first. The sea is 1km from Miami's centre and 3km from Cancun's, and both have 12 months of sea at 21°C or more, so swimming is never out of season.
Neither is a heritage destination: museums are few on both sides, and neither has a UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach. Both are warm year-round, with hot, wet summers and milder winters.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone whose trip is mostly the sea can take either: both offer 12 months of swimmable water. Miami's beach is closer to the centre, 1km against 3km, while Cancun has slightly more beaches to choose from.
A traveller who wants to walk out of the hotel into things to see should choose Miami: far more notable places within walking distance, more museums, and about twice as many bars and clubs.
Families are split: Miami has many more attractions near the centre, while Cancun offers more park space nearby, 3 theme parks within reach against 2, and gentler summer heat.
What the numbers don't tell you
This data carries no daily cost figure for either city, so no price comparison is possible here. Whatever you may assume about the relative expense of the two, these figures do not support it, and the money side of the decision has to be checked elsewhere.
No nearby weather station records sunshine hours for either city, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured: the monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. And heavy monthly rainfall totals, like Miami's 267mm peak, are sums over a month, not a promise of washed-out days.
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. Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre).
Cancun is the steadier summer choice. From June to September its highs hold at 30°C while Miami climbs to 32-33°C, and the rain is heavier in Miami, 267mm in its wettest month against Cancun's 181mm. Cancun's driest stretch is February to April, 38-50mm, with highs of 27-29°C.
Miami is at its strongest from December to March, when highs sit at 25-27°C and rain stays at 47-63mm. Cancun is warm then too, so the winter choice comes down to what you want on land rather than the weather.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cancun | Miami |
|---|---|---|
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 3 h 45 m €321-392 CUN · 14 km | 3 h 0 m €202-362 MIA · 7 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 2 h 10 m €110-128 CUN · 14 km | 3 h 5 m €278-290 MIA · 7 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 3 h 35 m €328-337 CUN · 14 km | 2 h 45 m €205-247 MIA · 7 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 3 h 25 m €313-363 1 stop CUN · 14 km | 2 h 55 m €143-193 MIA · 7 km |
| RaleighRDU | 2 h 50 m no fares CUN · 14 km | 2 h 0 m €156-181 MIA · 7 km |
| BogotaBOG | 3 h 20 m no fares CUN · 14 km | 3 h 30 m no fares MIA · 7 km |
| HoustonIAH, HOU | 2 h 10 m €286-331 1 stop CUN · 14 km | 2 h 30 m €103-188 1 stop MIA · 7 km |
| Kansas CityMCI, MKC | 3 h 15 m no fares CUN · 14 km | 3 h 0 m €304-406 1 stop MIA · 7 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 2 h 35 m €292-400 1 stop CUN · 14 km | 2 h 45 m €144-205 MIA · 7 km |
| MadridMAD | 10 h 0 m €721-977 CUN · 14 km | 9 h 0 m €522-631 1 stop MIA · 7 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 | Miami |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya | – |
| Currency | Mexican Peso (MXN) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB127 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5 | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 5 m | 2 m |
| Main airport | Cancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre136 non-stop destinations | Miami International Airport (MIA)7 km from centre199 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cancun | Miami |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 888,797 | 442,241 |
| People per km² | – | 3,046 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 17 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 31 | 39 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Miami somewhere new.