VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Beijing 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 Beijing for

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

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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. Beijing 6, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Playa del Carmen 52: Beijing leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Playa del Carmen 12: Beijing leads by 81 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Playa del Carmen 72: Beijing leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Playa del Carmen 55: Beijing leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Playa del Carmen 38: Beijing leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Playa del Carmen 52: Beijing leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Playa del Carmen 22: Beijing leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Playa del Carmen 54: Beijing leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

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

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingPlaya 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. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBeijingPlaya del Carmen
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation43 m8 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingPlaya del Carmen
City population21,893,095304,942
People per km²1,334-
Museums within 10 km830
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
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 Beijing 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.