VacationSelector
Comares Tower and the Palace of Charles V, Alhambra, Granada
GranadaComares Tower and the Palace of Charles V, Alhambra
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Granada by Jebulon, CC0; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Granada 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 Granada for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • families
  • 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.

Beaches & swimming. Granada 38, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Granada 62, Playa del Carmen 52: Granada leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Granada 80, Playa del Carmen 12: Granada leads by 68 points.
Nightlife. Granada 58, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Granada 80, Playa del Carmen 74: Granada leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Granada 76, Playa del Carmen 72: Granada leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Granada 52, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Granada 68, Playa del Carmen 55: Granada leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Granada 40, Playa del Carmen 38: Granada leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Granada 63, Playa del Carmen 52: Granada leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Granada 58, Playa del Carmen 22: Granada leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Granada 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: Granada and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Granada
Best match
60match

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

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Granada in July

35 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GranadaPlaya 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. Granada: 1991-2020 normals, Granada / Caserío Hospicio (5 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureGranadaPlaya del Carmen
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation693 m8 m
Main airportF.G.L. Airport Granada-Jaén Airport (GRX)16 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureGranadaPlaya del Carmen
City population233,975304,942
People per km²2,659-
Museums within 10 km200
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Granada 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.