VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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. Hong Kong 50, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, Playa del Carmen 52: Hong Kong leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, Playa del Carmen 12: Hong Kong leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, Playa del Carmen 66: Hong Kong leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, Playa del Carmen 74: Hong Kong leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, Playa del Carmen 55: Hong Kong leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, Playa del Carmen 38: Hong Kong leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, Playa del Carmen 22: Hong Kong leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hong Kong and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
55match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongPlaya 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. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHong KongPlaya del Carmen
Official languageStandard ChineseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency number999911
Elevation7 m8 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongPlaya del Carmen
City population7,413,070304,942
Museums within 10 km390
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hong Kong 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.