VacationSelector
The Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms, Tangier
TangierThe Cap Spartel lighthouse among palms
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

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

Tangier 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 Tangier for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Tulum for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • 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. Tangier 50, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Tangier 58, Tulum 52: Tangier leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Tangier 57, Tulum 30: Tangier leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Tangier 30, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tangier 55, Tulum 76: Tulum leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Tangier 72, Tulum 68: Tangier leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Tangier 35, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Tangier 40, Tulum 25: Tangier leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Tangier 42, Tulum 35: Tangier leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Tangier 76, Tulum 30: Tangier leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tangier 28, Tulum 15: Tangier leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tangier 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: Tangier and Tulum.

Your match

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

Tangier
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tulum
Best match
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.

Tangier in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 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
TangierTulum

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. Tangier: 1991-2020 normals, Tanger Aerodrome (9.5 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureTangierTulum
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation56 m5 m
Main airportTangier Ibn Battuta Airport (TNG)11 km from centre50 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

MeasureTangierTulum
City population1,275,42833,374
People per km²6,393-
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tangier 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.