VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cancun or Shanghai?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Shanghai for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Cancun leads by 88 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Shanghai 25: Cancun leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 60 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 49 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun and Shanghai are level on 55.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunShanghai

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. Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunShanghai
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaPutonghua
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation5 m4 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunShanghai
City population888,79724,870,895
People per km²-3,922
Museums within 10 km145
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Shanghai 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.