VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cancun or Nairobi?

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
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Nairobi for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Nairobi’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, Nairobi 4: Cancun leads by 94 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Nairobi 48: Nairobi leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Nairobi 35: Nairobi leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Nairobi 58: Cancun leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Nairobi 84: Nairobi leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Nairobi 28: Cancun leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Nairobi 55: Cancun leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Nairobi 20: Cancun leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Nairobi 45: Nairobi leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Nairobi 60: Nairobi leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Nairobi 35: Nairobi leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Nairobi 25: Cancun leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Nairobi.

Your match

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

Cancun
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Nairobi
41match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors 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

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunNairobi

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. Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunNairobi
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+3
Emergency number911Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation5 m1,661 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunNairobi
City population888,7975,545,000
People per km²-7,967
Museums within 10 km14
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Nairobi 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.