VacationSelector
A lifeguard stand on South Beach, Miami
MiamiA lifeguard stand on South Beach
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

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

Miami 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 Miami for

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

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

Choose Tulum for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Miami 90, Tulum 88: Miami leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Miami 72, Tulum 52: Miami leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Miami 57, Tulum 30: Miami leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Miami 82, Tulum 60: Miami leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Miami 64, Tulum 76: Tulum leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Miami 42, Tulum 68: Tulum leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Miami 64, Tulum 60: Miami leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Miami 35, Tulum 25: Miami leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Miami 71, Tulum 35: Miami leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Miami 27, Tulum 30: Tulum leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Miami 55, Tulum 15: Miami leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Miami 44, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 41 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Miami and Tulum.

Your match

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

Miami
Best match
59match

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

Tulum
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.

Miami in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
29 °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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MiamiTulum

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. Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMiamiTulum
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation2 m5 m
Main airportMiami International Airport (MIA)7 km from centre198 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMiamiTulum
City population442,24133,374
People per km²3,046-
Museums within 10 km170
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 Miami 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.