Photos: Deer Valley by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.
Deer Valley 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 Deer Valley for
- nature and the outdoors
- live music and the arts
- culture and sights
What lies behind each score is written up on Deer Valley’s own page.
Choose Playa del Carmen for
- beaches
- prices
- nightlife
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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Deer Valley and Playa del Carmen.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.
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.
Deer Valley in July
Playa del Carmen in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
Where the figures come from
Deer Valley's temperatures are measured 82 km from the centre, at Evanston.
Deer Valley's station stands 297 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.
Deer Valley has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.
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. Deer Valley: 1999-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Evanston (81.9 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.
Before you go
| Measure | Deer Valley | Playa del Carmen |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | - | Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | Mexican Peso (MXN) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB127 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer | UTC-5 |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 2,474 m | 8 m |
| Main airport | Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)45 km from centre108 non-stop destinations | Cancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre135 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 9 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Deer Valley | Playa del Carmen |
|---|---|---|
| City population | - | 304,942 |
| Museums within 10 km | 0 | 0 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| 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 Deer Valley or Playa del Carmen somewhere new.