VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands, Toronto
TorontoThe CN Tower and skyline from the Toronto Islands

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Toronto by Dillan Payne, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cancun or Toronto?

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
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose Toronto for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Toronto’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, Toronto 34: Cancun leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Toronto 70: Toronto leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Toronto 50: Toronto leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Toronto 62: Cancun leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Toronto 52: Cancun leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Toronto 50: Cancun leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Toronto 74: Cancun leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Toronto 65: Toronto leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Toronto 66: Toronto leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Toronto 34: Cancun leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Toronto 72: Toronto leads by 55 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Toronto 33: Cancun leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cancun and Toronto.

Your match

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

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Toronto
Best match
55match

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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Toronto in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunToronto

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. Toronto: 1991-2020 normals, Toronto City (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunToronto
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation5 m76 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsToronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)20 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunToronto
City population888,7972,794,356
People per km²-4,434
Museums within 10 km132
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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