VacationSelector
The Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace, Split
SplitThe Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: Split by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Split 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 Split for

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

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

Choose Tulum for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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. Split 75, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Split 57, Tulum 52: Split leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Split 66, Tulum 30: Split leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Split 52, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Split 77, Tulum 76: Split leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Split 78, Tulum 68: Split leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Split 54, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Split 67, Tulum 25: Split leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Split 32, Tulum 35: Tulum leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Split 45, Tulum 30: Split leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Split 37, Tulum 15: Split leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Split 40, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 45 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Split and Tulum.

Your match

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

Split
Best match
57match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tulum
52match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Split in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
25 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 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
SplitTulum

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. Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureSplitTulum
Official languageCroatianSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m5 m
Main airportSplit Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre69 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

MeasureSplitTulum
City population160,57733,374
Museums within 10 km110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Split 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). 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. 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.