VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Playa del Carmen 12: Antigua Guatemala leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Playa del Carmen 74: Antigua Guatemala leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Playa del Carmen 55: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Playa del Carmen 38: Antigua Guatemala leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Playa del Carmen 52: Antigua Guatemala leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala and Playa del Carmen are level on 22.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
47match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches 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.

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Antigua GuatemalaPlaya del Carmen

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaPlaya del Carmen
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123911
Elevation1,582 m8 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaPlaya del Carmen
City population59,091304,942
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antigua Guatemala 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.