VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Elizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth, Perth
PerthElizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Perth by Samuel Wiki, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Cancun or Perth?

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
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Perth for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Perth’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, Perth 86: Cancun leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Perth 58: Perth leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Perth 42: Perth leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Perth 42: Cancun leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Perth 72: Perth leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Perth 48: Cancun leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Perth 74: Cancun leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Perth 55: Perth leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Perth 44: Perth leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Perth 28: Cancun leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Perth 50: Perth leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Perth 38: Cancun leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Perth.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cancun
52match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Perth
53match

Wins on live music and the arts 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Perth in July

19 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunPerth

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. Perth: 1991-2020 normals, Perth (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunPerth
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number911000
Elevation5 m2 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsPerth International Airport (PER)10 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunPerth
City population888,7972,141,834
People per km²-334
Museums within 10 km115
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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