VacationSelector
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Tulum or Washington DC?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Washington DC for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Tulum leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Tulum 52, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Tulum 30, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Tulum 60, Washington DC 57: Tulum leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tulum 76, Washington DC 64: Tulum leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Tulum 68, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Tulum 60, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Tulum 25, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Tulum 35, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Tulum 30, Washington DC 28: Tulum leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tulum 15, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tulum 85, Washington DC 26: Tulum leads by 59 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tulum and Washington DC.

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.

Washington DC
Best match
56match

Wins on culture and sights 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
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TulumWashington DC

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. Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTulumWashington DC
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 m72 m
Main airportFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureTulumWashington DC
City population33,374689,545
People per km²-3,896
Museums within 10 km098
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tulum or Washington DC 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.