VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cancun or Paphos?

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
  • beaches
  • shopping

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

Choose Paphos for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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, Paphos 76: Cancun leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Paphos 45: Paphos leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Paphos 62: Paphos leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Paphos 38: Cancun leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Paphos 70: Paphos leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Paphos 64: Cancun leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Paphos 68: Cancun leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Paphos 40: Paphos leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Paphos 25: Cancun leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Paphos 52: Paphos leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Paphos 22: Paphos leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Paphos 42: Cancun leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Paphos.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cancun
52match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Paphos
50match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunPaphos

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.

Paphos 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. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunPaphos
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation5 m72 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunPaphos
City population888,79735,961
People per km²-1,987
Museums within 10 km14
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Paphos 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.