VacationSelector
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Tokyo 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 Tokyo for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Tulum for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Tokyo 40, Tulum 88: Tulum leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Tokyo 98, Tulum 52: Tokyo leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Tokyo 84, Tulum 30: Tokyo leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Tokyo 86, Tulum 60: Tokyo leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tokyo 68, Tulum 76: Tulum leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Tokyo 85, Tulum 68: Tokyo leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Tokyo 95, Tulum 60: Tokyo leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Tokyo 98, Tulum 25: Tokyo leads by 73 points.
Shopping & style. Tokyo 99, Tulum 35: Tokyo leads by 64 points.
Affordability. Tokyo 48, Tulum 30: Tokyo leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tokyo 86, Tulum 15: Tokyo leads by 71 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tokyo 78, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tokyo and Tulum.

Your match

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

Tokyo
Best match
80match

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

Tulum
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.

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °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
TokyoTulum

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. Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre). Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureTokyoTulum
Official languageJapaneseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyYen (JPY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation6 m5 m
Main airportTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 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

MeasureTokyoTulum
City population14,264,79833,374
People per km²6,501-
Museums within 10 km1920
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Tokyo 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.