VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Playa del Carmen?

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 Acapulco for

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

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • day trips
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’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. Acapulco 80, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Playa del Carmen 52: Acapulco leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Playa del Carmen 12: Acapulco leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 57 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Playa del Carmen 38: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Playa del Carmen 52: Acapulco leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Playa del Carmen 22: Acapulco leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Acapulco
44match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips 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.

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoPlaya del Carmen

Where the figures come from

Playa del Carmen 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. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoPlaya del Carmen
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation18 m8 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoPlaya del Carmen
City population658,609304,942
People per km²350-
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Playa del Carmen somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.