VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Lower Broadway and its honky-tonks, Nashville
NashvilleLower Broadway and its honky-tonks

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Nashville by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cancun or Nashville?

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
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Nashville for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Nashville’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, Nashville 14: Cancun leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Nashville 62: Nashville leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Nashville 50: Nashville leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Cancun and Nashville are level on 70.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Nashville 46: Cancun leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Nashville 52: Cancun leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Nashville 55: Cancun leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Nashville 30: Nashville leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Nashville 42: Nashville leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Nashville 30: Cancun leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Nashville 82: Nashville leads by 65 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Nashville 20: Cancun leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Nashville.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Nashville
46match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Nashville in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
104 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunNashville

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. Nashville: 1991-2020 normals, Nashville Airport (9.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunNashville
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation5 m182 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsNashville International Airport (BNA)10 km from centre122 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunNashville
City population888,797689,447
People per km²-506
Museums within 10 km112
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 Nashville 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.