VacationSelector
The Japanese Covered Bridge, Hoi An
Hoi AnThe Japanese Covered Bridge
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Hoi An by François Guerraz, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Hoi An 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 Hoi An for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • nightlife
  • 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. Hoi An 72, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Hoi An 68, Playa del Carmen 52: Hoi An leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Hoi An 66, Playa del Carmen 12: Hoi An leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Hoi An 28, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hoi An 63, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Hoi An 50, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Hoi An 58, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Hoi An 48, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Hoi An 57, Playa del Carmen 38: Hoi An leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Hoi An 88, Playa del Carmen 52: Hoi An leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hoi An 24, Playa del Carmen 22: Hoi An leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hoi An 65, Playa del Carmen 54: Hoi An leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hoi An 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, 2 points apart

Hoi An
57match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Hoi An in July

35 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
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

0200400600800JFMAMJJASOND
Hoi AnPlaya 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. Hoi An: 1991-2020 normals, Da Nang (23.5 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHoi AnPlaya 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
Elevation13 m8 m
Main airportDa Nang International Airport (DAD)23 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHoi AnPlaya del Carmen
City population121,716304,942
Museums within 10 km50
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hoi An 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). 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. 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.