VacationSelector
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

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

Tulum or Vancouver?

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 Vancouver for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Tulum leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Tulum 52, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Tulum 30, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Tulum 60, Vancouver 42: Tulum leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tulum 76, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Tulum 68, Vancouver 45: Tulum leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Tulum 60, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Tulum 25, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Tulum 35, Vancouver 55: Vancouver leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Tulum 30, Vancouver 27: Tulum leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tulum 15, Vancouver 52: Vancouver leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tulum 85, Vancouver 50: Tulum leads by 35 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Tulum
52match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Vancouver
Best match
56match

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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TulumVancouver

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. Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTulumVancouver
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaFrench, English
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation5 m2 m
Main airportFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureTulumVancouver
City population33,374662,248
People per km²-5,759
Museums within 10 km026
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tulum or Vancouver 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.