VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms, Tangier
TangierThe Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Tangier by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cancun or Tangier?

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 Tangier for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Tangier’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, Tangier 50: Cancun leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Tangier 58: Tangier leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Tangier 57: Tangier leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Tangier 30: Cancun leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Tangier 55: Cancun leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Tangier 72: Tangier leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Tangier 35: Cancun leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Tangier 40: Tangier leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Tangier 42: Tangier leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Tangier 76: Tangier leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Tangier 28: Tangier leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Tangier 50: Cancun leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Tangier.

Your match

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

Cancun
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Tangier
49match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Tangier in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunTangier

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. Tangier: 1991-2020 normals, Tanger Aerodrome (9.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunTangier
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1
Emergency number911Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation5 m56 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsTangier Ibn Battuta Airport (TNG)11 km from centre50 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunTangier
City population888,7971,275,428
People per km²-6,393
Museums within 10 km16
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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