VacationSelector
The old harbour in Kaleiçi, Antalya
AntalyaThe old harbour in Kaleiçi
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Antalya by Furkan Tumer, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Antalya 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 Antalya for

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

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • 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. Antalya 82, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Antalya 57, Playa del Carmen 52: Antalya leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Antalya 55, Playa del Carmen 12: Antalya leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Antalya 48, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antalya 83, Playa del Carmen 74: Antalya leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Antalya 78, Playa del Carmen 72: Antalya leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Antalya 74, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Antalya 50, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Antalya 44, Playa del Carmen 38: Antalya leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Antalya 62, Playa del Carmen 52: Antalya leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antalya 40, Playa del Carmen 22: Antalya leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antalya 62, Playa del Carmen 54: Antalya leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antalya and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Antalya
Best match
61match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Antalya in July

35 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 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
AntalyaPlaya 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. Antalya: 1991-2020 normals, Antalya (23.4 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAntalyaPlaya del Carmen
Official languageTurkishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation30 m8 m
Main airportAntalya International Airport (AYT)9 km from centre172 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntalyaPlaya del Carmen
City population2,426,356304,942
People per km²1,712-
Museums within 10 km50
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antalya 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.