VacationSelector
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum
Ushuaia below snow-capped mountains, Ushuaia
UshuaiaUshuaia below snow-capped mountains

Photos: Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Ushuaia by Jan Tang, Pexels License.

Tulum or Ushuaia?

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 Tulum for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose Ushuaia for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Ushuaia’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. Tulum 88, Ushuaia 3: Tulum leads by 85 points.
Food & drink. Tulum 52, Ushuaia 40: Tulum leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Tulum 30, Ushuaia 22: Tulum leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Tulum 60, Ushuaia 18: Tulum leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tulum 76, Ushuaia 88: Ushuaia leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Tulum 68, Ushuaia 14: Tulum leads by 54 points.
Good for families. Tulum 60, Ushuaia 40: Tulum leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Tulum 25, Ushuaia 45: Ushuaia leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Tulum 35, Ushuaia 22: Tulum leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Tulum 30, Ushuaia 42: Ushuaia leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tulum 15, Ushuaia 10: Tulum leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tulum 85, Ushuaia 26: Tulum leads by 59 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tulum and Ushuaia.

Your match

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

Tulum
Best match
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Ushuaia
31match

Wins on getting around 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.

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

Ushuaia in July

4 °Cdaytime high
0 °Cnight-time low
36 mmrain in the month
2 hsunshine a day
No seasea
8 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TulumUshuaia

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. Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Ushuaia: 1991-2020 normals, Ushuaia Aerodrome (1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTulumUshuaia
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency number911117 or 911
Elevation5 m23 m
Main airportFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsUshuaia - Malvinas Argentinas International Airport (USH)4 km from centre9 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureTulumUshuaia
City population33,37482,615
People per km²-3,592
Museums within 10 km05
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tulum or Ushuaia somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.