VacationSelector
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Florianopolis 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 Florianopolis for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • 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. Florianopolis 85, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Florianopolis 58, Playa del Carmen 52: Florianopolis leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Florianopolis 33, Playa del Carmen 12: Florianopolis leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Florianopolis 60, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florianopolis 78, Playa del Carmen 74: Florianopolis leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Florianopolis 50, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Florianopolis 60, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Florianopolis 28, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Florianopolis 33, Playa del Carmen 38: Playa del Carmen leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Florianopolis 60, Playa del Carmen 52: Florianopolis leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florianopolis 28, Playa del Carmen 22: Florianopolis leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florianopolis 45, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florianopolis and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Florianopolis
52match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 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
FlorianopolisPlaya 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. Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureFlorianopolisPlaya del Carmen
Official languagePortugueseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCN60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation3 m8 m
Main airportHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorianopolisPlaya del Carmen
City population587,486304,942
People per km²870-
Museums within 10 km110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Florianopolis 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.