VacationSelector
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Tulum or Valencia?

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

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Valencia for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Tulum leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Tulum 52, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Tulum 30, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Tulum 60, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tulum 76, Valencia 60: Tulum leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Tulum 68, Valencia 70: Valencia leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Tulum 60, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Tulum 25, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Tulum 35, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Tulum 30, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tulum 15, Valencia 55: Valencia leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tulum 85, Valencia 42: Tulum leads by 43 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tulum and Valencia.

Your match

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

Tulum
52match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TulumValencia

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. Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTulumValencia
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation5 m15 m
Main airportFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureTulumValencia
City population33,374840,792
People per km²-6,242
Museums within 10 km045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tulum or Valencia 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.