Cancun or Washington DC?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 2 points apart
Wins on beaches & swimming and value for money with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and museums & heritage with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cancun leads by 79 points.79
| Cancun | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 97 | 18 |
| Swim season months | 12 | 3 |
| Beaches 10 km | 23 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 3 km | 34 km |
| Water distance | 3 km | 34 km |
Places to eat. Washington DC leads by 23 points.23
| Cancun | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 77 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 681 | 1,666 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 36 |
Museums & heritage. Washington DC leads by 35 points.35
| Cancun | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 83 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 1 | 55 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 100 | 66 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Washington DC leads by 25 points.25
| Cancun | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 61 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 270 | 1,029 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 175 | 593 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 65 | 58 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 33 | 54 |
Nature & day trips. Cancun leads by 12 points.12
| Cancun | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 42 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 9 | 10 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 1 |
| Land share of disc % | 45 | 94 |
| Park area within 2 km | 66 hectares | 96 hectares |
Good for families. Washington DC leads by 6 points.6
| Cancun | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 2 | 7 |
| Park area within 2 km | 66 hectares | 96 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Washington DC leads by 72 points.72
| Cancun | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 4 | 76 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 5 | 305 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Cancun leads by 33 points.33
| Cancun | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 43 |
| Price level global | 54.2 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Cancun leads by 19 points.19
| Cancun | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 62 |
| Monthly daytime high | 26.2 °C to 30.3 °C | 7 °C to 31.7 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 224 mm | 65 mm to 108 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cancun: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Cancun | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 3 h 45 m €321-392 CUN · 14 km | 1 h 20 m €158-333 IAD · 37 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 3 h 35 m €328-337 CUN · 14 km | 1 h 5 m €233-271 DCA · 5 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 3 h 25 m €313-363 1 stop CUN · 14 km | 1 h 50 m €199-215 DCA · 5 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 2 h 10 m €110-128 CUN · 14 km | 4 h 10 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
| AtlantaATL, PDK | 2 h 20 m no fares CUN · 14 km | 1 h 40 m €267-307 1 stop DCA · 5 km |
| RaleighRDU | 2 h 50 m no fares CUN · 14 km | 1 h 5 m €230 1 stop DCA · 5 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 4 h 40 m €319-382 1 stop CUN · 14 km | 5 h 0 m €226-372 1 stop DCA · 5 km |
| OrlandoMCO, SFB, ORL | 1 h 50 m €216-378 1 stop CUN · 14 km | 2 h 5 m €189-295 1 stop DCA · 5 km |
| Kansas CityMCI, MKC | 3 h 15 m no fares CUN · 14 km | 2 h 30 m no fares DCA · 5 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 10 h 0 m no fares CUN · 14 km | 7 h 35 m €507-561 1 stop IAD · 37 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Cancun | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya | – |
| Currency | Mexican Peso (MXN) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB127 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5 | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 5 m | 72 m |
| Main airport | Cancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre136 non-stop destinations | Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre103 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cancun | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 888,797 | 689,545 |
| People per km² | – | 3,896 |
| Museums within 10 km | 1 | 99 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 31 | 82 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 3 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Washington DC somewhere new.