VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Cancun or Muscat?

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

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Muscat for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Muscat’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, Muscat 72: Cancun leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Cancun and Muscat are level on 44.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Muscat 55: Muscat leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Muscat 14: Cancun leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Muscat 70: Muscat leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Muscat 62: Cancun leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Muscat 52: Cancun leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Muscat 20: Cancun leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Muscat 42: Muscat leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Muscat 45: Cancun leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Muscat 40: Muscat leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun and Muscat are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Muscat.

Your match

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

Cancun
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Muscat
48match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunMuscat

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.

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

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. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunMuscat
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaArabic
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+4
Emergency number911968
Elevation5 m69 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCancunMuscat
City population888,7971,421,409
People per km²-406
Museums within 10 km110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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