VacationSelector
The Hassan II Mosque and its minaret, Casablanca
CasablancaThe Hassan II Mosque and its minaret
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Casablanca by Samir Bakkah, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Casablanca 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 Casablanca for

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

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • beaches

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. Casablanca 50, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Casablanca 60, Playa del Carmen 52: Casablanca leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Casablanca 52, Playa del Carmen 12: Casablanca leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Casablanca 44, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Casablanca 33, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Casablanca 55, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Casablanca 38, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Casablanca 42, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Casablanca 50, Playa del Carmen 38: Casablanca leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Casablanca 68, Playa del Carmen 52: Casablanca leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Casablanca 38, Playa del Carmen 22: Casablanca leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Casablanca 52, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Casablanca and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Casablanca
49match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Casablanca in July

26 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
22 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CasablancaPlaya 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. Casablanca: 1991-2020 normals, Casablanca (5.6 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCasablancaPlaya del Carmen
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCE50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15911
Elevation115 m8 m
Main airportMohammed V International Airport (CMN)26 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCasablancaPlaya del Carmen
City population3,215,935304,942
People per km²8,375-
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Casablanca 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). 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. 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.