VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cancun or Oslo?

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
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Oslo for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Oslo’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, Oslo 36: Cancun leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Oslo 55: Oslo leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Oslo 66: Oslo leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Oslo 48: Cancun leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Oslo 82: Oslo leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Oslo 52: Cancun leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Oslo 63: Cancun leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Oslo 85: Oslo leads by 60 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Oslo 50: Oslo leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Oslo 14: Cancun leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Oslo 62: Oslo leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Oslo 60: Oslo leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Oslo.

Your match

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

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Oslo
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunOslo

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. Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunOslo
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation5 m23 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunOslo
City population888,797717,710
Museums within 10 km160
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Oslo 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.