VacationSelector
The wide beach and its hotels in morning light, Daytona Beach
Daytona BeachThe wide beach and its hotels in morning light
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Daytona Beach by Han Zheng, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Daytona Beach 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 Daytona Beach for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • 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. Daytona Beach 80, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Daytona Beach 36, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Daytona Beach 30, Playa del Carmen 12: Daytona Beach leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Daytona Beach 40, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Daytona Beach 56, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Daytona Beach 66, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Daytona Beach 60, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Daytona Beach 18, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Daytona Beach 27, Playa del Carmen 38: Playa del Carmen leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Daytona Beach 46, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Daytona Beach 30, Playa del Carmen 22: Daytona Beach leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Daytona Beach 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: Daytona Beach and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Daytona Beach
43match

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

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Daytona Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Daytona BeachPlaya 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. Daytona Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Daytona Beach / Mansfield Mobile Home Park (4.9 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDaytona BeachPlaya 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
Elevation4 m8 m
Main airportDaytona Beach International Airport (DAB)5 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureDaytona BeachPlaya del Carmen
City population72,647304,942
People per km²440-
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Daytona Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.