VacationSelector
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

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

Santiago 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 Santiago for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Tulum for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Santiago 12, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Santiago 60, Tulum 52: Santiago leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago 52, Tulum 30: Santiago leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Santiago and Tulum are level on 60.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago 83, Tulum 76: Santiago leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Santiago 70, Tulum 68: Santiago leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Santiago 57, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Santiago 68, Tulum 25: Santiago leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago 52, Tulum 35: Santiago leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Santiago 58, Tulum 30: Santiago leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago 55, Tulum 15: Santiago leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago 37, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago and Tulum.

Your match

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

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Tulum
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 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
SantiagoTulum

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. Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoTulum
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132911
Elevation575 m5 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoTulum
City population6,257,51633,374
People per km²7,468-
Museums within 10 km540
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Santiago 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.