VacationSelector
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum
The beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier, Virginia Beach
Virginia BeachThe beach and the oceanfront hotels from the fishing pier

Photos: Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Virginia Beach by SchuminWeb, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Tulum or Virginia Beach?

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
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Virginia Beach for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Virginia Beach’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, Virginia Beach 77: Tulum leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Tulum 52, Virginia Beach 42: Tulum leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Tulum and Virginia Beach are level on 30.
Nightlife. Tulum 60, Virginia Beach 37: Tulum leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tulum 76, Virginia Beach 56: Tulum leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Tulum 68, Virginia Beach 64: Tulum leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Tulum 60, Virginia Beach 75: Virginia Beach leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Tulum 25, Virginia Beach 27: Virginia Beach leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Tulum 35, Virginia Beach 32: Tulum leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Tulum 30, Virginia Beach 40: Virginia Beach leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tulum 15, Virginia Beach 38: Virginia Beach leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tulum 85, Virginia Beach 32: Tulum leads by 53 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tulum and Virginia Beach.

Your match

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

Tulum
Best match
52match

Wins on wellness and nightlife with your weighting.

Virginia Beach
46match

Wins on live music and the arts and families 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Virginia Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
152 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TulumVirginia Beach

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. Virginia Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Virginia Beach / Gatewood Park (5.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTulumVirginia Beach
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation5 m7 m
Main airportFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre9 non-stop destinationsNorfolk International Airport (ORF)20 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureTulumVirginia Beach
City population33,374459,470
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tulum or Virginia Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.