VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Faro 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 Faro for

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

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • nightlife
  • wellness
  • families

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. Faro 74, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Playa del Carmen 12: Faro leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Playa del Carmen 55: Faro leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Playa del Carmen 38: Playa del Carmen leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, Playa del Carmen 52: Faro leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Playa del Carmen 22: Faro leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Faro
49match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °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
FaroPlaya 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. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureFaroPlaya del Carmen
Official languagePortugueseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation10 m8 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroPlaya del Carmen
City population64,560304,942
People per km²319-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Faro 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.