VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Hurghada 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 Hurghada for

  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • 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. Hurghada 84, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Playa del Carmen 12: Hurghada leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Playa del Carmen 38: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Playa del Carmen 52: Hurghada leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Playa del Carmen 22: Playa del Carmen leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Hurghada
43match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hurghada in July

37 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaPlaya 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. Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaPlaya del Carmen
Official languageArabicSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180911
Elevation11 m8 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaPlaya del Carmen
City population214,247304,942
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Hurghada 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). 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. 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.