VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cancun or Orange 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
  • day trips

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

Choose Orange Beach for

  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Orange Beach’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, Orange Beach 86: Cancun leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Orange Beach 40: Cancun leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Orange Beach 7: Cancun leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Orange Beach 30: Cancun leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Orange Beach 60: Cancun leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Orange Beach 50: Cancun leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Orange Beach 75: Cancun leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Orange Beach 15: Cancun leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Orange Beach 25: Cancun leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Orange Beach 38: Cancun leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Orange Beach 32: Orange Beach leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Orange Beach 32: Cancun leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Orange Beach.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunOrange Beach

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. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunOrange Beach
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 m4 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunOrange Beach
City population888,7978,095
People per km²-196
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Orange Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.