VacationSelector
The Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi
HanoiThe Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Hanoi by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Hanoi 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 Hanoi for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Hanoi 6, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Hanoi 85, Playa del Carmen 52: Hanoi leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Hanoi 72, Playa del Carmen 12: Hanoi leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Hanoi 50, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hanoi 52, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Hanoi 58, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Hanoi 35, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Hanoi 36, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Hanoi 50, Playa del Carmen 38: Hanoi leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Hanoi 98, Playa del Carmen 52: Hanoi leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hanoi 40, Playa del Carmen 22: Hanoi leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hanoi 46, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hanoi and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Hanoi
52match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
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.

Hanoi in July

34 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
311 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
HanoiPlaya del Carmen

Where the figures come from

Hanoi's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Phu Lien.

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. Hanoi: 1991-2020 normals, Ha Noi (4.4 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHanoiPlaya del Carmen
Official languageVietnameseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyDong (VND)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114911
Elevation10 m8 m
Main airportNoi Bai International Airport (HAN)22 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHanoiPlaya del Carmen
City population8,717,600304,942
People per km²2,595-
Museums within 10 km140
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 Hanoi 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.