VacationSelector
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Tulum or Wilmington?

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
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • live music and the arts
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Tulum leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Tulum 52, Wilmington 48: Tulum leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Tulum 30, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Tulum 60, Wilmington 40: Tulum leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tulum 76, Wilmington 58: Tulum leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Tulum 68, Wilmington 45: Tulum leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Tulum 60, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Tulum 25, Wilmington 28: Wilmington leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Tulum 35, Wilmington 33: Tulum leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Tulum 30, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tulum 15, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tulum 85, Wilmington 33: Tulum leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tulum and Wilmington.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and prices 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TulumWilmington

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. Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTulumWilmington
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 m9 m
Main airportFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre9 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureTulumWilmington
City population33,374115,451
People per km²-839
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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