VacationSelector
The Church of Saint Sava, Belgrade
BelgradeThe Church of Saint Sava
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Belgrade by Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Belgrade 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 Belgrade for

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

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Belgrade 40, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Belgrade 60, Playa del Carmen 52: Belgrade leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Belgrade 52, Playa del Carmen 12: Belgrade leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Belgrade 80, Playa del Carmen 66: Belgrade leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Belgrade 50, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Belgrade 60, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Belgrade 45, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Belgrade and Playa del Carmen are level on 55.
Shopping & style. Belgrade 42, Playa del Carmen 38: Belgrade leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Belgrade 70, Playa del Carmen 52: Belgrade leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Belgrade 55, Playa del Carmen 22: Belgrade leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Belgrade 30, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Belgrade and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Belgrade
53match

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

Playa del Carmen
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.

Belgrade in July

29 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
10 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BelgradePlaya 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. Belgrade: 1991-2020 normals, Beograd (2.1 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBelgradePlaya del Carmen
Official languageSerbianSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencySerbian Dinar (RSD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 92/192, ambulance 94/194, fire 93/193911
Elevation117 m8 m
Main airportBelgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (BEG)12 km from centre125 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBelgradePlaya del Carmen
City population1,197,714304,942
People per km²3,327-
Museums within 10 km650
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Belgrade 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.