Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License.
Cancun or Palm Springs?
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
- families
- nightlife
What lies behind each score is written up on Cancun’s own page.
Choose Palm Springs for
- culture and sights
- wellness
- live music and the arts
What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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 Palm Springs.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.
Wins on culture and sights and wellness 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
Palm Springs 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.
Palm Springs 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. Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Cancun | Palm Springs |
|---|---|---|
| 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-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 5 m | 146 m |
| Main airport | Cancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinations | Palm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cancun | Palm Springs |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 888,797 | 44,575 |
| People per km² | - | 181 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 3 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | - |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Palm Springs somewhere new.