VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Colombo 55, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Playa del Carmen 52: Colombo leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Playa del Carmen 12: Colombo leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Playa del Carmen 38: Colombo leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Playa del Carmen 52: Colombo leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Playa del Carmen 22: Colombo leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on families 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.

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboPlaya 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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureColomboPlaya del Carmen
Official languageTamil, SinhalaSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m8 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboPlaya del Carmen
City population647,557304,942
People per km²17,361-
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.