VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Boston 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 Boston for

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

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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. Boston 35, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Playa del Carmen 52: Boston leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Playa del Carmen 12: Boston leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Boston and Playa del Carmen are level on 72.
Good for families. Boston 72, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Playa del Carmen 55: Boston leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Playa del Carmen 38: Boston leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Playa del Carmen 22: Boston leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston 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, 1 point apart

Boston
56match

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

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
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
BostonPlaya 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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBostonPlaya del Carmen
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation43 m8 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonPlaya del Carmen
City population675,647304,942
People per km²2,910-
Museums within 10 km510
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boston 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.