VacationSelector
The harbour seen from above, Marmaris
MarmarisThe harbour seen from above
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: Marmaris by Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Marmaris 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 Marmaris for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Tulum for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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. Marmaris 80, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Marmaris 40, Tulum 52: Tulum leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Marmaris 18, Tulum 30: Tulum leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Marmaris and Tulum are level on 60.
Nature & outdoors. Marmaris 72, Tulum 76: Tulum leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Marmaris 65, Tulum 68: Tulum leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Marmaris 62, Tulum 60: Marmaris leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Marmaris 55, Tulum 25: Marmaris leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Marmaris 38, Tulum 35: Marmaris leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Marmaris 62, Tulum 30: Marmaris leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marmaris 12, Tulum 15: Tulum leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marmaris 50, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marmaris 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

Marmaris
51match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Tulum
52match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Marmaris in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Tulum in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MarmarisTulum

Where the figures come from

Marmaris's temperatures are measured 49 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Marmaris has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Marmaris: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (48.8 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMarmarisTulum
Official languageTurkishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m5 m
Main airportDalaman International Airport (DLM)49 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre9 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarmarisTulum
City population97,81833,374
People per km²111-
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marmaris 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.