VacationSelector
The coastline of the Hotel Zone, Cancun
CancunThe coastline of the Hotel Zone
The Croatian National Theatre, Zagreb
ZagrebThe Croatian National Theatre

Photos: Cancun by Tellez Erik, Pexels License; Zagreb by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cancun or Zagreb?

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 Zagreb for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Zagreb’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, Zagreb 10: Cancun leads by 88 points.
Food & drink. Cancun 44, Zagreb 55: Zagreb leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Cancun 15, Zagreb 56: Zagreb leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Cancun 70, Zagreb 47: Cancun leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cancun 66, Zagreb 62: Cancun leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cancun 65, Zagreb 60: Cancun leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Cancun 78, Zagreb 52: Cancun leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Cancun 25, Zagreb 70: Zagreb leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Cancun and Zagreb are level on 40.
Affordability. Cancun 46, Zagreb 60: Zagreb leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cancun 17, Zagreb 52: Zagreb leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cancun 55, Zagreb 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 Zagreb.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cancun
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Zagreb
50match

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

Zagreb in July

29 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CancunZagreb

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. Zagreb: 1991-2020 normals, Zagreb / Gric (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCancunZagreb
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaCroatian
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation5 m127 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)14 km from centre137 non-stop destinationsZagreb Franjo Tuđman International Airport (ZAG)11 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCancunZagreb
City population888,797767,131
Museums within 10 km127
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cancun or Zagreb 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.