VacationSelector
The Teatro Amazonas, Manaus
ManausThe Teatro Amazonas
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: Manaus by Jardelsliumba, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Manaus 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 Manaus for

  • live music and the arts
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tulum for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • beaches

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. Manaus 38, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Manaus 56, Tulum 52: Manaus leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Manaus 46, Tulum 30: Manaus leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Manaus 42, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manaus 86, Tulum 76: Manaus leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Manaus 12, Tulum 68: Tulum leads by 56 points.
Good for families. Manaus 35, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Manaus 27, Tulum 25: Manaus leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Manaus 36, Tulum 35: Manaus leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Manaus 63, Tulum 30: Manaus leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manaus 54, Tulum 15: Manaus leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manaus 20, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 65 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manaus and Tulum.

Your match

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

Manaus
43match

Wins on live music and the arts and prices with your weighting.

Tulum
Best match
52match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Manaus in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
ManausTulum

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. Manaus: 1991-2020 normals, Manaus (1.7 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureManausTulum
Official languagePortugueseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCN60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation92 m5 m
Main airportEduardo Gomes International Airport (MAO)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureManausTulum
City population2,303,73233,374
People per km²202-
Museums within 10 km130
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Manaus 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. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.