VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Hiroshima 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 Hiroshima for

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

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Hiroshima 30, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, Playa del Carmen 52: Hiroshima leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, Playa del Carmen 12: Hiroshima leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, Playa del Carmen 72: Hiroshima leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, Playa del Carmen 55: Hiroshima leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, Playa del Carmen 38: Hiroshima leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, Playa del Carmen 52: Hiroshima leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, Playa del Carmen 22: Hiroshima leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 50, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hiroshima and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Hiroshima
56match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaPlaya 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. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaPlaya del Carmen
Official languageJapaneseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyYen (JPY)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation3 m8 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaPlaya del Carmen
City population1,198,021304,942
People per km²1,324-
Museums within 10 km180
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hiroshima or Playa del Carmen somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.