VacationSelector
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

San Miguel de Allende 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 San Miguel de Allende for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’s own page.

Choose Tulum for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. San Miguel de Allende 4, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 84 points.
Food & drink. San Miguel de Allende 62, Tulum 52: San Miguel de Allende leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. San Miguel de Allende 62, Tulum 30: San Miguel de Allende leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. San Miguel de Allende 38, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Miguel de Allende 40, Tulum 76: Tulum leads by 36 points.
Day trips. San Miguel de Allende 77, Tulum 68: San Miguel de Allende leads by 9 points.
Good for families. San Miguel de Allende 32, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 28 points.
Getting around. San Miguel de Allende 48, Tulum 25: San Miguel de Allende leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. San Miguel de Allende 55, Tulum 35: San Miguel de Allende leads by 20 points.
Affordability. San Miguel de Allende 50, Tulum 30: San Miguel de Allende leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Miguel de Allende 40, Tulum 15: San Miguel de Allende leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Miguel de Allende 66, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Miguel de Allende and Tulum.

Your match

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

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tulum
Best match
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.

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San Miguel de AllendeTulum

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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. San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeTulum
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,900 m5 m
Main airportGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeTulum
City population69,81133,374
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 San Miguel de Allende 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.