VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • 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. Johannesburg 5, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 83 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Playa del Carmen 52: Johannesburg leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Playa del Carmen 12: Johannesburg leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Playa del Carmen 38: Johannesburg leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Playa del Carmen 52: Johannesburg leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Playa del Carmen 22: Johannesburg leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches 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.

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgPlaya 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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgPlaya del Carmen
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m8 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgPlaya del Carmen
City population4,803,262304,942
People per km²2,922-
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Johannesburg 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.