Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
Cancun or Myrtle Beach?
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
- wellness
- nature and the outdoors
What lies behind each score is written up on Cancun’s own page.
Choose Myrtle Beach for
- live music and the arts
- prices
- culture and sights
What lies behind each score is written up on Myrtle Beach’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Myrtle Beach.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and wellness with your weighting.
Wins on live music and the arts and prices 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
Myrtle Beach in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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.
Myrtle Beach has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.
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. Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Cancun | Myrtle Beach |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 8 m |
| Main airport | Cancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre135 non-stop destinations | Myrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cancun | Myrtle Beach |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 888,797 | 35,682 |
| People per km² | - | 591 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 2 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 6 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Myrtle Beach somewhere new.