VacationSelector
The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta
JakartaThe Istiqlal Mosque
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: Jakarta by Antonyus Bunjamin, Pexels License; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Jakarta or Tulum?

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 Jakarta for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Tulum for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Tulum’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. Jakarta 28, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Jakarta 78, Tulum 52: Jakarta leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Jakarta 48, Tulum 30: Jakarta leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Jakarta 66, Tulum 60: Jakarta leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Jakarta 30, Tulum 76: Tulum leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Jakarta 45, Tulum 68: Tulum leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Jakarta 50, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Jakarta 36, Tulum 25: Jakarta leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Jakarta 64, Tulum 35: Jakarta leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Jakarta 80, Tulum 30: Jakarta leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Jakarta 42, Tulum 15: Jakarta leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Jakarta 46, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 39 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Jakarta and Tulum.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Jakarta
51match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Tulum
52match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Jakarta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Tulum in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
JakartaTulum

Where the figures come from

Tulum 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. Jakarta: 1991-2020 normals, Jakarta / Observatory (1.1 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureJakartaTulum
Official languageIndonesianSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyRupiah (IDR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation91 m5 m
Main airportSoekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)20 km from centre89 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureJakartaTulum
City population11,135,19133,374
People per km²16,821-
Museums within 10 km440
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Jakarta or Tulum somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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). 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.