VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

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

Cancun or Vancouver?

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
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Vancouver for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Cancun leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Vancouver 42: Cancun leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Vancouver 45: Cancun leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Vancouver 72: Cancun leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun 40, Vancouver 55: Vancouver leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Vancouver 27: Cancun leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Vancouver 52: Vancouver leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Vancouver 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 Vancouver.

Your match

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

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Vancouver
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunVancouver

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. Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunVancouver
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation5 m2 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunVancouver
City population888,797662,248
People per km²-5,759
Museums within 10 km126
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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