VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Chengdu 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 Chengdu for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Chengdu’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. Chengdu 5, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 83 points.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, Playa del Carmen 52: Chengdu leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, Playa del Carmen 12: Chengdu leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, Playa del Carmen 66: Chengdu leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu 68, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, Playa del Carmen 72: Chengdu leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, Playa del Carmen 55: Chengdu leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, Playa del Carmen 38: Chengdu leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, Playa del Carmen 52: Chengdu leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, Playa del Carmen 22: Chengdu leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, Playa del Carmen 54: Chengdu leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink 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.

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChengduPlaya 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. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChengduPlaya 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
Elevation500 m8 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureChengduPlaya del Carmen
City population20,937,757304,942
People per km²1,456-
Museums within 10 km100
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 Chengdu 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.